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Biology GCSE > Ecology Test October > Flashcards

Ecology Test October Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a community?

A
  • a group of interdependent species of plants, animals and microorganisms
  • all of the populations of different species put together
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2
Q

What is interdependence

A
  • each species depends on another in various ways
  • one species removed, can have knock-on effect on community
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3
Q

Describe the examples of interdependence

A
  • animals dispersing seeds of plants to new places
  • using holes in trees for shelter
  • transferring pollen from one plant to another
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4
Q

What is competition?

A
  • organisms depending on the same resource and competing for it
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5
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A
  • interaction of a community of living organisms (biotic) and non living (abiotic) parts of their environment
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6
Q

Give examples of competition in plants and animals

A

plants - light, space, mineral ions from soil, water
animals - mates, food, territory

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7
Q

Describe what a stable community is like

A
  • population sizes of prey and predators rise and fall in cycles
  • predators increase = more competition for food
  • some die from lack of food = more prey
  • more prey = more predators
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8
Q

What is a population?

A
  • all the individual organisms of one species in an ecosystem
  • ecosystem contains number of populations
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9
Q

What is an abiotic factor?

A

physical condition of an environment

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10
Q

List all of the abiotic factors

A
  • light intensity
  • temperature
  • moisture level
  • soil pH + mineral content
  • wind intensity and direction
  • CO2 levels
  • O2 levels
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11
Q

How does temperature affect an ecosystem?

A
  • affects enzymes (denature?)
  • different species = adapted to survive in different temps
  • affects rate of decay
  • affects rate of transpiration
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12
Q

How does light intensity affect an ecosystem?

A
  • more photosynthesis = more food for animals
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13
Q

How do CO2 levels affect an ecosystem?

A
  • slow photosynthesis = higher CO2 levels
  • rising CO2 levels = more photosynthesis

other factors would soon limit plant growth

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14
Q

How do O2 levels affect an ecosystem?

A
  • low oxygen levels can kill aquatic animals
  • absorb O2 using body surface/ gills
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15
Q

How does moisture level, mineral content and soil pH affect an ecosystem?

A
  • moisture needed for decay in soil
  • decay releases mineral ions into soil
  • different plants adapted to different soil pHs
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16
Q

How does humidity, wind speed, and wind direction affect an ecosystem?

A
  • affects rate of transpiration in plants
  • can limit distribution of plant species
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17
Q

What are some biotic factors?

A
  • availability of food
  • new predators
  • new pathogens
  • competition
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18
Q

How does the availibility of food affect an ecosystem?

A
  • affects size of population eating it
  • too many individuals = more competiton = some may not survive
  • food supply increases = population increases
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19
Q

How do new predators and pathogens affect an ecosystem?

A
  • can kill individuals and reduce size of population
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20
Q

How does competition affect an ecosystem?

A
  • 2 populations competing for same food
  • one may outperform the other
  • other population decreases until there is not enough to breed
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21
Q

What are adaptations?

A
  • features that organisms have that enable them to survive in conditions where they normally live
  • may be structural, functional, or behavioural
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22
Q

What are the three types of adaptations?

A
  • structural
  • functional
  • behavioural
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23
Q

What is a structural adaptation?

A
  • something we could see
  • shape, colour, SA to volume ratio

eg sharp claws on brown bear for catching prey

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24
Q

What is a functional adaptation?

A
  • processes going on inside organism
  • eg reproductive system/ metabolism

eg octopuses can change colour to camoflage themselves

25
Q

What is a behavioural adaptation?

A
  • the way an organism behaves/ acts
  • eg hibernation, huddling etc
26
Q

What is an extremophile?

A
  • organisms that are adapted to survive in extreme environments
  • eg very hot/ cold/ high pressure environments

bacteria living in sea vents

27
Q

What are producers?

A
  • organisms with the ability to make their own food molecules
  • plants and algae
28
Q

What are consumers?

A
  • organisms that get their food molecules by eating other organisms
  • primary consumers eat plants or algae
  • secondary & tertiary consumers eat animals
29
Q

How do you find the size of a population?

A
  • quadrat used to mark out small area
  • number of individuals in quadrat counted
  • repeated for large number of randomly placed quadrats
  • mean by quadrat
  • mean x number of times quadrat would fit into area = estimated population size
30
Q

What does randomly placing quadrats do?

A
  • removes any bias
  • increases accuracy of mean count
31
Q

how do you find the distibution of a population?

A
  • tape measure used to mark transect
  • quadrats placed at regular intervals along transect
  • number of individuals counted in each quadrat
  • bar chart showing number of individuals at each point along transect
32
Q

What is a transect?

A
  • line across the area whre the population is found
33
Q

How do you position quadrats randomly?

A
  • use random number generator
  • generate coordinates
34
Q

How do you investigate the effect of factor on distribution?

A
  • make sure transect runs across areas where factor varies
  • measure factor at each quadrat position + counting organism
  • present data as bar chart/ table/ scatter diagram
  • look for correlation
35
Q

What is the carbon cycle?

A
  • returns carbon from organisms to atomsphere as CO2 (respiration + microorganisms help decay)
  • used by plants in phtosynthesis
  • carbon (in form of food molecules) transferred from plants to animals during feeding
36
Q

What is the water cycle?

A
  • water evaporates
  • condenses as clouds
  • precipitation, water falls as rain, hail, snow, sleet
  • perlocation - water gets absorbed by ground but if soil is saturated some are run off
  • transpiration, water evaporates from leaves and more water is drawn up from ground by plant
37
Q

What is biodiversity?

A
  • variety of all the different species of organisms on earth or within an ecosystem
38
Q

What is good biodiversity like?

A
  • reduce dependence of one species on another for food/ shelter/ maintenance of physical environment
  • if one species of prey becomes exitinct -> predators could rely on others for survival
39
Q

What does pollution in different areas look like?

A

in water - sewage, fertiliser or toxic chemicals
in air - smoke and acidic gases
on land - landfill and toxic chemicals

40
Q

How does fertiliser harm the environment?

A
  • washed from land to rivers when it rains
  • encourage growth of aquatic algae + plants
  • grow rapidly = outcompete each other = some die
  • bacteria decay dead plants, use dissolved oxygen to respire
  • reduced oxygen level can kill aquatic animals
41
Q

How do acidic gases harm the environment?

A
  • dissolve in rain and sea
  • reduce pH of water
  • increased acidity dissolves shells & skeletons of coral + crabs
  • could kill them
42
Q

How do landfills harm the environment?

A
  • toxic chemicals from waste leak into surrounding soil
  • contamination kill plants and animals
43
Q

How do humans reduce the amount of land available for other animals?

A
  • building
  • dumping waste
  • quarrying
  • farming
44
Q

What is peat?

A
  • remains of plants that have not decayed
  • conditions are anaerobic
45
Q

What is peat used for?

A
  • cheap compost for plants
46
Q

Why do local plants and insects depend on peatlands

A
  • plants require wet and acidic conditions of peat bogs
  • wetland insects depend on these plant species for food
47
Q

What are the consequences of digging up peat?

A
  • destroys habitat including plants
  • if insects are unable to migrate they die
  • reduces biodiversity
  • remaining exposed peat decays
  • burns easily -> could be set on fire
  • decay + burning of peat releases large amounts of CO2
48
Q

What is the land created by clearing forests used for and what are their effects?

A
  • grow crops for biofuels
  • rearing of cattle - soil erosion, waste pollutes local rivers
  • grow rice - mud in rice fields become anaerobic -> disturbed = releases methane
49
Q

What is the impact of human activity in global warming?

A
  • increased levels of CO2 and methane in atmosphere
  • CO2 released by burning fossil fuels + biological materials (eg wood/ peat)
  • decay of peat in damaged peatlands = More CO2
  • methane released by cattle + flooded rice fields
50
Q

What do methane and carbon dioxide do?

A
  • greenhouse gases
  • trap heat from sun in earth’s atmosphere
  • increasing mean air temperature
51
Q

What does global warming cause?

A
  • climate change
  • sea level rise
  • desertification
52
Q

What are the biological consequences of global warming?

A
  • loss of habitat - rise in sea level floods coastal marshes
  • changes in distrubution - some animals able to live in new places + pathogens able to spread to new places
  • extinctions - animals + plants unable to migrate becoming extinct
53
Q

How do humans try to maintain biodiversity?

A
  • protection and regeneration of rare habitats
  • recycling to reduce landfill
  • reintroduction of field margins and hedgerows
  • breeding programmes for endangered species
  • reduction of deforestation and CO2 emissions
54
Q

How does protecting and regenerating rare habitats help maintian biodiversity?

A
  • national parks + nature reserves
  • stop habitat destruction
  • food, fuelwood, farming needed
  • controversial for some countries to set aside large areas
  • illegal grazing/ poaching
55
Q

How does recycling help maintain biodiversity?

A
  • reduces volume of waste in landfill
  • reduces amount of land needed for new landfill sites = less habitat loss
  • reduces need for replacement resources
56
Q

how do breeding programmes help maintain biodiversity?

A
  • breeding captive endangered animals
  • cultivating wild plants
  • increases numbers of endangered animals + plants
  • releasing into wild
57
Q

How does the reintroduction of field margins and hedgerows help maintain biodiversity?

A
  • single crop = less food + fewer habitats for wild plants & animals
  • variety of plants = more food + wider range of habitats
  • supports organisms that are not supported by the crop
58
Q

How are the reduction of deforestation and CO2 emissions being handled?

A
  • governments trying to reduce rate of clearing tropical forests
  • countries reducing CO2 emissions

Biology GCSE (8 decks)

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