Ecology Study Guide

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 2

Producer

Answer 2

An autotrophic organism that serves as a source of food for other organisms in a food chain.

Question 3

Consumer

Answer 3

a person or thing that eats or uses something.

Question 4

Scavenger

Answer 4

an animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse.

Question 5

Decomposed

Answer 5

an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.

Question 6

Food chain

Answer 6

a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Question 7

Food web

Answer 7

a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

Question 8

Energy pyramid

Answer 8

is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.

Question 9

Heterotroph

Answer 9

an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances.

Question 10

Autotroph

Answer 10

an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide.

Question 11

Trophic level

Answer 11

each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

Question 12

Biomass

Answer 12

The total mass of all living material in a specific area, habitat, or region.

Question 13

Nitrogen fixation

Answer 13

the chemical processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into organic compounds, especially by certain microorganisms as part of the nitrogen cycle.

Question 14

Abiotic

Answer 14

physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms.

Question 15

Biotic

Answer 15

relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.

Question 16

Primary succession

Answer 16

is one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier, is deposited.

Question 17

Secondary succession

Answer 17

is one of the two types ecological succession of a plants life.

Question 18

Pioneer species

Answer 18

are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems.

Question 19

Weathering

Answer 19

wear away or change the appearance or texture of

Question 20

Erosion

Answer 20

the process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents.

Question 21

Deposition

Answer 21

the action of deposing someone, especially a monarch.