Organisation of an ecosystem Flashcards
What is biomass?
Amount of living material in an organisam
What does a food chain show?
feeding relationships within a community
What do all food chains begin with?
a producer
Name two different types of organism which would be found at the start of a food chain.
green plant
algae
What is meant by the terms mode and median?
mode = most common median = middle
What might eat a secondary consumer?
a tertiary conusmer
Define the term predator.
an animal which kills and eats another animal
Define the term prey.
an animal which is hunted and killed for food by a predator
What piece of equipment is usually used to sample abundance of an organism in an area?
quadrat
- Why is it essential that materials are recycled in the living world?
to provide the building blovks for future organisms
- What is precipitation in the water cycle?
rain
- List three main processes in the carbon cycle.
photosynthesis
respiration
combustion
decay
- Name three factors which must be present for rapid decay of waste
biological material to occur.
warmth
oxygen
water
microorganisms (Decomposers)
- What do gardeners call the end product after waste biological
material has decayed?
compost
- What is this end product then used for?
compost
as a natural fertiliser for garden plants or crops
- What causes anaerobic decay to occur?
insufficient oxygen
- Name a useful end product of anaerobic decay.
methane
- What is this product used for?
as a furl
- What is the name of the equipment used to process and collect this
end product?
a biogas generator
List three environmental changes which may alter the distribution
of a species in an ecosystem.
temperature
availability of water
composition of atmospheric gacses
- Name three reasons why these environmental changes may occur.
seasonal
geographic
human interaction
