Environment Bronze Qs Unit 3 Flashcards
Describe a decomposer and list two examples
A decomposer is an organism that breaks down organic material
Bacteria and fungi are examples of decomposers
Describe the essential role decomposers play in an ecosystem
They help with cycling important nutrients such as nitrogen and carbon through an ecosystem
They move the nutrients from biotic, to abiotic parts of a ecosystem. Then the nutrients become available to producers
Explain what would happen if there were no decomposers
Without decomposers, there would be no recycling of nutrients needed by producers for making new organic matter. Meaning the ecosystem would eventually run out of nutrients and stop working
Explain why a food chain is useful to ecologists
Food chains describe how energy in the form of food passes from one organism to another in an ecosystem
This is helps ecologist divide organisms that make up a food chain into three categories (producers, consumers, and decomposers)
Explain the difference between a primary consumer and a secondary consumer. List two examples of each
Primary consumers
-Eat plants (herbivores)
Examples
Mice
Rabbits
Secondary Consumers
-Eat other organisms (carnivores)
Examples
Foxes
Wolves
Describe what happens to some of the energy as it passes through each trophic level of a food chain
As energy passes through each link in the food chain, some if it is lost as heat. Additionally, not all organisms (such as primary consumers) are consumed by carnivores)
Thus each trophic level has less energy
Explain why an ecosystem will always have fewer predators compared with the number of primary consumers or producers
The lack of available energy (at higher trophic level) limits the number of consumers (predators) that can exist at those levels within a particular ecosystem.
Therefore, there will always be fewer predators in a ecosystem than primary consumers.
