Ecology & The Enviroment

Question 0

Population

Answer 0

All the organisms if one species in a habitat

Question 1

Habitat

Answer 1

The place where an organism lives

Question 2

Community

Answer 2

All the different species in a habitat

Question 3

Ecosystem

Answer 3

All the organisms living in a particular area and all the non-living (abiotic) conditions, e.g. Temp, climate, soil-type.

Question 4

What is a quadrat and what is it used for?

Answer 4

To estimate population size in an area

It’s a square frame enclosing a known area

Question 5

What do food chains show us?

Answer 5

What’s eaten by what in an ecosystem

Question 6

What do food chains always start with?

Answer 6

A producer (plant)

Question 7

What are producers always eaten by?

Answer 7

Primary consumers

Question 8

What do decomposers do?

Answer 8

Break down dead material and waste.

Question 9

What is each stage of a food chain called?

Answer 9

Tropic level

Question 10

What does a pyramid of biomass show?

Answer 10

Each bar on a pyramid of biomass shows the mass of living material at that stage of the food chain.

Question 11

What does a pyramid of energy transfer show? (They are always pyramid shaped!)

Answer 11

The energy transfered to each tropic level in a food chain.

Question 12

What do food webs show?

Answer 12

How food chains are linked

Question 13

What does the carbon cycle show?

Answer 13

How carbon is recycled

Question 14

What is the order of the carbon cycle? (6)

Answer 14

1. ) powered by photosynthesis. Green plants use the carbon from CO2 to make carbs, fats and proteins.
2. ) eating: carbon from plants to animals.
3. ) respiration releases CO2 back into the air.
4. )plants and animals die and decompose and turned into useful products
5. ) decomposers release CO2 back into the air by respiration
6. ) plant and animal products are burned and this releases CO2 back into the air.

Question 15

Name two ways that carbon monoxide is produced..

Answer 15

• When fossil files are burnt

* Car emissions

Question 16

What happens if carbon monoxide combines with red blood cells?

Answer 16

It prevents them from carrying oxygen

Question 17

What is acid rain caused by?

Answer 17

sulfur dioxide

Question 18

How is sulfur dioxide released?

Answer 18

The sulfur impurities in fossil fuels

Question 19

What happens when sulfur dioxide is mixed with rain clouds?

Answer 19

It forms dilute sulfuric acid and acid rain falls.

Question 20

What are the main causes of acid rain?

Answer 20

• internal combustion engines in cars

* power stations

Question 21

What effect does acid rain have on lakes?

Answer 21

• become more acidic
• effects the ecosystem of the lake
• plants and animals die (because they are sensitive to changes in Ph)

Question 22

How does acid rain kill trees?

Answer 22

• acid damages leaves
• releases toxic substances from the soil
• this makes it hard for the trees to take up nutrients.

Question 23

What happens when fertilisers leach into water?

Answer 23

Eutrophication

Question 24

What is eutrophication?

Answer 24

* nitrates and phosphates are put onto fields as mineral fertilisers * if too much fertiliser is applied and it rains afterwards, nitrates are easily leached into rivers and lakes.

Question 25

What three things does deforestation affect?

Answer 25

* soil * water cycle * carbon cycle

Question 26

Summarise leaching...

Answer 26

•trees take up nutrients from the soul before they can be leached by rain Leaves die •when trees are removed nutrients get leached away but not replaced leaving Infertile ground