Ecosystems

Question 1

what is an ecosystem?

Answer 1

the dynamic interaction between all the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors in a habitat

Question 2

what is a community?

Answer 2

all the populations of different species who live in the same place at the same time and who can interact with each other

Question 3

what is a niche?

Answer 3

a role a species plays within the ecosystem

Question 4

what are cyclic changes?

Answer 4

these changes repeat themselves in a rhythm eg. predator and prey cycle

Question 5

what are directional changes?

Answer 5

changes that go in one direction and tend to last longer than the lifetime of organisms within the ecosystem

Question 6

what are unpredictable changes?

Answer 6

changes that have no rhythm and no constant direction eg. hurricanes

Question 7

how to estimate the population of each species in a whole habitat?

Answer 7

mean number of individuals of the species in each quadrant/ fraction of total habitat covered by a single quadrant