Key Area 1 - Ecosystem

Question 1

What is biodiversity?

Answer 1

The total variation among living organisms within a region (rainforest, ocean, the Earth).

Question 2

What is a producer?

Answer 2

Living organisms which make food using inorganic materials and an abiotic energy
(E.g. green plants produce sugars from CO2 and H2O, and light energy via the process of photosynthesis)

Question 3

What is a consumer.

Answer 3

Living organisms which obtain food by feeding on producers or other consumers

Question 4

What is a herbivore?

Answer 4

A living organism which only eats plant material.

Question 5

What is a carnivore?

Answer 5

Living organisms which only eat other animals

Question 6

What are omnivores?

Answer 6

Living organisms which eat both plants and animals

Question 7

What is a predator?

Answer 7

Hunts, kills and feeds on another organism (its prey)

Question 8

What is prey?

Answer 8

Is hunted, killed and fed on by another organism (its predator)

Question 9

What is a habitat?

Answer 9

The area in which an organism lives

Question 10

What is a population?

Answer 10

All the members of one species living in a habitat

Question 11

What is a community?

Answer 11

All the plants, animals and microorganisms living in a habitat

Question 12

What is a species?

Answer 12

A group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring

Question 13

What is a food chain?

Answer 13

A diagram showing the feeding relationships between different organisms

Question 14

What is a food web?

Answer 14

The large number of interconnected food chains within an ecosystem

Question 15

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 15

Habitat + Community

Question 16

What is an organisms ecological niche?

Answer 16

It’s role within an ecosystem

Question 17

What might an organisms niche consist of?

Answer 17

It’s interactions with other organisms (e.g. competition and predation), how it uses the resources in its ecosystem (e.g. light and available nutrients) and the conditions it can tolerate (e.g. temperature)

Question 18

When does competition occur within ecosystems?

Answer 18

When organisms require the same or similar resources that are short in supply

Question 19

When does interspecific competition occur?

Answer 19

This occurs between individuals of different species that require similar resources within an ecosystem because they occupy similar ecological niches

Question 20

When does intraspecific competition occur?

Answer 20

This occurs between individuals if the same species who will require all the same resources. Therefore, this type of competition is much more intense, and not all individuals in a population will be as successful at surviving to reproduce