Organisation of an ecosystem

Question 1

What is biomass?

Answer 1

Amount of living material in an organisam

Question 2

What does a food chain show?

Answer 2

feeding relationships within a community

Question 3

What do all food chains begin with?

Answer 3

a producer

Question 4

Name two different types of organism which would be found at the start of a food chain.

Answer 4

green plant

algae

Question 5

What is meant by the terms mode and median?

Answer 5

mode = most common 
median = middle

Question 6

What might eat a secondary consumer?

Answer 6

a tertiary conusmer

Question 7

Define the term predator.

Answer 7

an animal which kills and eats another animal

Question 8

Define the term prey.

Answer 8

an animal which is hunted and killed for food by a predator

Question 9

What piece of equipment is usually used to sample abundance of an organism in an area?

Answer 9

quadrat

Question 10

10. Why is it essential that materials are recycled in the living world?

Answer 10

to provide the building blovks for future organisms

Question 11

11. What is precipitation in the water cycle?

Answer 11

rain

Question 12

12. List three main processes in the carbon cycle.

Answer 12

photosynthesis
respiration
combustion
decay

Question 13

13. Name three factors which must be present for rapid decay of waste
    biological material to occur.

Answer 13

warmth
oxygen
water
microorganisms (Decomposers)

Question 14

14. What do gardeners call the end product after waste biological
    material has decayed?

Answer 14

compost

Question 15

5. What is this end product then used for?

compost

Answer 15

as a natural fertiliser for garden plants or crops

Question 16

16. What causes anaerobic decay to occur?

Answer 16

insufficient oxygen

Question 17

17. Name a useful end product of anaerobic decay.

Answer 17

methane

Question 18

18. What is this product used for?

Answer 18

as a furl

Question 19

19. What is the name of the equipment used to process and collect this
    end product?

Answer 19

a biogas generator

Question 20

List three environmental changes which may alter the distribution
of a species in an ecosystem.

Answer 20

temperature
availability of water
composition of atmospheric gacses

Question 21

21. Name three reasons why these environmental changes may occur.

Answer 21

seasonal
geographic
human interaction