Ecology Review Questions

Question 1

What is the symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is harmed?

Answer 1

Parasitism

Question 2

Which type of organism is at the bottom of the food pyramid?

Answer 2

Producer

Question 3

What are resources that can be produced at roughly the same rate they are consumed?

Answer 3

Renewable

Question 4

where is the LEAST energy found in an energy pyramid?

Answer 4

Top

Question 5

What is the series of changes in an ecosystem when one community is replaced with another

Answer 5

Succession

Question 6

Which limiting factors affect populations based on their size, such as predation or disease?

Answer 6

Density dependent

Question 7

What are the most important pioneer species in primary succession?

Answer 7

Lichens and mosses

Question 8

What are the only organisms that can remove or take nitrogen from the air?

Answer 8

Bacteria

Question 9

What is an observing agent, like salt water in the ocean that absorbs excess carbon dioxide

Answer 9

Sink

Question 10

What type of organisms decompose organic material and return nutrients to the soil, water, air?

Answer 10

Decomposers

Question 11

What are chemicals that contribute to the depletion of the ozone?

Answer 11

CFCs

Question 12

Which earth system includes the layer gasses that surround the earth?

Answer 12

Atmosphere

Question 13

What is the organism that is benefitting from the parasitic relationship?

Answer 13

Parasite

Question 14

What is the maximum number of individual organisms that an environment can support indefinitely?

Answer 14

Carrying capacity

Question 15

What is the process of moving soil from one location to another?

Answer 15

Soil erosion

Question 16

What is the process where organisms break down sugars and release CO2 into the atmosphere?

Answer 16

Cellular respiration

Question 17

Which type of succession begins with bare rock?

Answer 17

Primary

Question 18

What is the atmosphere that prevents much of the ultraviolet radiation from reaching the earths surface?

Answer 18

Ozone layer

Question 19

What is an increase in the number of organisms of a particular population?

Answer 19

Population growth

Question 20

What is a species that is eaten by another organism?

Answer 20

Prey

Question 21

Something that cannot make its own food is considered ______?

Answer 21

Heterotrophic

Question 22

An organisms “job” in a community is referred to as its _____?

Answer 22

Niche

Question 23

What is an ecosystem in which population numbers, resources, and energy fluctuate at a predictable rate?

Answer 23

Stable ecosystem

Question 24

What are renewable energy sources like wind, water, or solar energy?

Answer 24

Alternative energy

Question 25

Which organisms are found on the second tropic level of ecological pyramids?

Answer 25

Herbivores/ primary consumers

Question 26

Which type of symbiotic relationship exists when both animals benefit?

Answer 26

Mutualism

Question 27

Producers create their own food through which process?

Answer 27

Photosynthesis

Question 28

In the water cycle, what are the two ways water returns to the atmosphere?

Answer 28

Transpiration/ evaporation

Question 29

In the carbon cycle, what are two ways carbon is released into the atmosphere?

Answer 29

Respiration/ combustion

Question 30

What is the total mass of living organic material at each tropic level?

Answer 30

Biomass

Question 31

What is the process where bacteria convert nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into usable nitrogen?

Answer 31

Nitrogen fixation

Question 32

What are the first organisms to appear in a community?

Answer 32

Pioneer species

Question 33

What is the place where an organism lives?

Answer 33

Habitat

Question 34

What is the movement of a particular form of matter through the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem?

Answer 34

Geochemical cycle

Question 35

What is an organism that eats other heterotrophs?

Answer 35

Carnivore

Question 36

What is a mature community where there is little change in the composition of species?

Answer 36

Climax community

Question 37

An organism can make its own food is considered ________?

Answer 37

Autotrophic

Question 38

What is the process when rocks are eroded and carbon is released into the oceans?

Answer 38

Weathering

Question 39

What is a relationship where two or more species need the same resources at the same time?

Answer 39

Competition

Question 40

What is the process when bacteria break down nitrogen compounds in the soil and return it back into the atmosphere?

Answer 40

Denitrification

Question 41

Where is the MOST energy found in an energy pyramid?

Answer 41

Bottom

Question 42

What are resources that cannot be produces at roughly the same rate they are consumed

Answer 42

Nonrenewable

Question 43

What is close relationship between two different species?

Answer 43

Symbiotic relationship

Question 44

What is the increase of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning that results in an increase in global temperatures?

Answer 44

Global warming

Question 45

What is the process where organisms use energy from sunlight and CO2 from the atmosphere to produce sugars and oxygen?

Answer 45

Photosynthesis

Question 46

Which limiting factors affect populations regardless of their size, such as natural disasters?

Answer 46

Density-independent

Question 47

Which type of succession follows a disturbance of some kind?

Answer 47

Secondary