ecology: adaptation, interdependence and competition

Question 1

what does habitat mean?

Answer 1

the place where an organism lives

Question 2

what does population mean?

Answer 2

all the organisms of one species living in a habitat

Question 3

what does community mean?

Answer 3

the population of different specieies living in a habitat?

Question 4

what are abiotic factors?

Answer 4

non livign factors of enviroment

Question 5

what are biotic factors?

Answer 5

living factors on enviroemnt

Question 6

what is an ecosystem?

Answer 6

The intercation of a community of living organisms with non living parts of the enviroment

Question 7

to survive and reproduce what do organism need to do?

Answer 7

organism need a supply of materials from their surrounding and from other organism livign thier.

Question 8

what do plants compete aginst each other for?

Answer 8

light and space water and minerial ions in the soil

Question 9

what do animals compete againts each other for?

Answer 9

terriorty, mating partners, food, water

Question 10

what does interdependance mean?

Answer 10

when all of the different species in a community depend on each other

Question 11

what is the importance of interdependance and competition in a community?

Answer 11

if different species stop depending on each other and a specie is remved it could affect the whole community.
plant depedn of bees for pollination
trees shelter animals from sun or bad weather

Question 12

what is a stable community?

Answer 12

where all the species and enviromental factors are in balance so poulation remains fairly constant

Question 13

what are the biotic factors?

Answer 13

• new predators arriving, compettion
• new pathogens, availability of food

Question 14

what could a change in the enviroment cause?

Answer 14

a chnage in the enviroment could cause a new biotic factor such as a new pathogen affecting size of populations in a community

Question 15

what are the abiotic factors?

Answer 15

• moisture level
• light intenisty
• carbon dioxide level
• oxygen level
• wind intensity
• temperatures
• soil pH and mineral content

Question 16

changes in the abiotioc factors can affect what?

Answer 16

affect size of populations and could affect the population size of other organism that depend on them

example animal depend on plant for food and if plant popualtion decrease

Question 17

give 2 exmaples of how abiotic factors can affect plant popualtion?

Answer 17

• a decrease in light intenisty or temp or co2 levels can decrease photosythesis rate so affect plant growth and decrease plant popualtion
• a decrease in minerla content of the soil could cause nutient deficiencies affect plant growht and cause a decrease in popualtion

Question 18

what are adaptations?

Answer 18

features or chacharaterisitics that allow them to live in different enviromental condtions

Question 19

what are structural adaptation of a camel?

Answer 19

large surcae area to volume ratio to help them lose heat

Question 20

what are behaviorla adaptations?

Answer 20

adaptations to an animals lifestyle or behavior for example species may migrate to a warmer climate during the winter to avoid cold conditions

Question 21

what are functional adaptation?

Answer 21

adapataion to the body fuction of an organism e.x the metabolism and reprodcution fucntion

Question 22

give the functional adaptation of desert animals?

Answer 22

conserve water by prodcuing ver little sweat and small amount of concentarted urine

Question 23

what are extremophiles?

Answer 23

microogisnsm which live in extremly harsh conditons of high tmeperatures and high pressure and high concentartion of saltfound and are found in deep sea vents.

Question 24

what is a producer?

Answer 24

An organism which makes it own food using the energy from the sun