Ecosystems

Question 1

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 1

A natural enviroment made up of plants, animals and the environment

Question 2

What does biotic mean?

Answer 2

Living things

Question 3

What does abiotic mean?

Answer 3

Non-living things

Question 4

What are the two scales ecosystems can be found at?

Answer 4

Small scale and large scale (biomes)

Question 5

What does a food chain show?

Answer 5

It show the direct link between producers and consumers

Question 6

What do producers do?

Answer 6

Make their own food via photosynthesis

Question 7

What do consumers do?

Answer 7

Get energy from eating others consumers and also producers

Question 8

What do decomposers do?

Answer 8

Break down plant and animal material and return it to the soil

Question 9

Give an example of a food chain

Answer 9

Plant → insect → mouse → owl

Question 10

What is a food web?

Answer 10

A more complex food chain

Question 11

What is nutrient cycling?

Answer 11

When plants or animals die, they decompose and their nutrients go into the soil. The soil becomes fertile allowing plants to grow.

Question 12

What happens if a change occurs in an ecosystem?

Answer 12

If a change occcurs in an ecosystem there can be knock on effects to the rest of the ecosystem

Question 13

What is a natural changes that can occur in an ecosystem?

Answer 13

Drought - it can dry up ponds meaning fish may not survive and plants can dry up

Question 14

What are two human changes that can occur in an ecosystem?

Answer 14

• Eutrophication
• Woods cut down - destroys habitats for wildlife and affects the nutrient cycle

Question 15

What is eutrophication?

Answer 15

Agricultural fertilisers are harmful and can get washed into rivers causing algae to grow. The algae covers the surface of the rivers blocking out sunlight. Plants/fish do not get water and are starved of oxygen

Question 16

How can changes affect the pond ecosystem?

Answer 16

1. Adding some perch, a predator
2. The perch will eat the smaller fish and animals like frogs
3. This will reduce the amount of food further up the chain e.g. heron
4. With fewer frogs there will be an increase of creatures below frogs

Question 17

What is the case study for changes in an ecosystem?

Answer 17

Yellowstone National Park

Question 18

What animals were introduced?

Answer 18

Wolves

Question 19

What are five changes that the wolves made to the ecosystem?

Answer 19

• They changed the behaviour of the deer - they started to avoid certain places in the park
• The areas where the deer were avoiding started to regenerate
• In some places, the height of the trees quintupled in just 6 years
• The number of beavers started to increase and the dams they built provided habitats for other animals such as otters, ducks, fish, reptiles
• They changed the behaviour of rivers. They began to meander less and there was less erosion as the regenerating forests stabilised the banks so they collapsed less often so the rivers became more fixed in their course

Question 20

Give four large scale ecosystems

Answer 20

• Tropical rainforest
• Tundra
• Polar
• Deciduous and coniferous forests

Question 21

What are the characteristics of tropical rainforests?

Answer 21

They have equatorial low pressure belts (high temperatures and heavy rainfall)

Question 22

What are the characteristics of tundra ecosystems?

Answer 22

Cold, windy and dry conditions

Question 23

What are the characteristics of polar ecosystems?

Answer 23

Polar high - cold air sinks at the north and south poles which results in very low temperatures and dry conditions

Question 24

What are the characteristics of deciduous and coniferous forests?

Answer 24

Deciduous trees shed their leaves in the winter to retain moisture. Coniferous trees retain their leaves to maximise photosynthesis during short summer months.