Paper 1 - Section B Flashcards
What is an abiotic element of an ecosystem?
Non living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environments
What is a biotic element of an ecosystem?
Plants and animals
What is the role of a producer?
Produced by sunlight
What is the role of a consumer?
Organisms that consume other organisms to obtain their energy
What is the role of a decomposer?
Organisms that break down dead plants and animals
What is the difference between a food web and a food chain?
Food web - shows lots of food chains and how they overlap
Food chain - flow of energy from producer to tertiary consumer
What is the purpose of the nutrient cycle?
Transfer nutrients through ecosystem
Give two examples of how nutrients are lost in the nutrient cycle?
Washed away by rain
Lost in the soil
What term is given to a large scale ecosystem?
Biome
What does the term biodiversity mean?
The variety of life in the world or a particular habitat
Where are tropical rainforests located?
Equator
Name the four layers of the tropical rainforest?
Emergent
Canopy
Under canopy
Forest floor
Describe the features of the soil in a tropical rainforest?
Removal of top soil
Faster than it can be replaced
Name two ways that plants have adapted to the tropical rainforest?
Drip tip leaves - have thick waxy leaves and drip tips to channel water
Buttress roots - anchor the trees in the shallow soil
Name two ways animals have adapted to the tropical rainforest?
Spider monkey - prehensile tail to be able to grasp the branches of the trees
Poison dart frog - bright colours deter predators
Give four reasons why tropical rainforests are valuable?
Carbon sink
Water and nutrient cycling
Protection against soil erosion
Wildlife habitats
Give four causes of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest?
Logging
Road building
Mineral extraction
Energy development
Give one positive and one negative impact of deforestation?
Climate change - temperature change
Economic development- jobs (employment)
Give two examples of sustainable management of a rainforest?
Ecotourism
Selective logging and replanting
Describe the location of hot deserts?
Around the tropics of cancer and Capricorn
Between 15 and 30 degrees north or south of the equator
Give two examples of plant adaptations in the hot desert?
Cactus - reduced number of stomata to reduce water loss by transpiration
• needles instead of leaves reducing loss by evapotranspiration
• large capacity to store water in fleshy stems
• large, network of roots absorb water rapidly after rainfall
Give two examples of animal adaptations in the hot desert?
Camels - humps store fat which a camel can break down into water and energy
• broad, fat leathery feet to spread their weight and provide protection from hot sand
• long eyelashes, big feet
Mouse
• sandy colour
• 360 eyes
Name and locate the hot desert case study?
Thar desert in India
Name two opportunities in the hot desert?
Renewable energy
Minerals
Name two challenges in the hot desert
No water
Inaccessibility
Define desertification and give two causes
Climate change - hotter and drier
Population - increased
Give examples of how desertification can be reduced?
Water and soil management
• addresses the problem of intense rainfall events washing away loose soil and causing soil erosion e.g bunds in the Sahel
It also involves water storage and controlling surface flow
Tree planting
• effective in reducing soil erosion. Roots bind the soil and canopies act like umbrellas. The great green wall is a plan to plant trees across the southern edge of the Sahara desert
Appropriate technology
• the use of technology or techniques that can be easily used or replaced by local people. Examples include bunds and planting pits (zai).
