Populations in Ecosystems Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment, including factors like climate, water, and nutrients.
What is a population in an ecosystem?
A population is a group of individuals of the same species living in the same area and able to interbreed.
What is a community in an ecosystem?
A community is all the different populations of organisms living and interacting in the same area at the same time.
What is a habitat?
A habitat is the specific environment in which an organism lives, providing the necessary conditions for survival and reproduction.
What is the difference between a population and a community?
A population refers to individuals of the same species living in a specific area, while a community refers to all populations of different species living in the same area.
What is the concept of a niche?
A niche is the role or function of an organism in an ecosystem, including how it gets its food, how it reproduces, and how it interacts with other organisms.
What is carrying capacity?
Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals an environment can support sustainably, based on factors like food, space, and predation.
What factors affect population size in an ecosystem?
Factors affecting population size include biotic factors (like competition, predation, and disease) and abiotic factors (such as temperature, light, and water availability).
What is the difference between biotic and abiotic factors?
Biotic factors are living components (such as competition and predation), while abiotic factors are non-living components (such as temperature and soil pH).
What is population density?
Population density is the number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume, indicating how crowded the population is.
What is the growth rate of a population?
The growth rate of a population is the change in the number of individuals in the population over a given period of time, often expressed as a percentage.
What is exponential growth in populations?
Exponential growth is a type of population growth where the population size increases rapidly, without constraints, typically in an ideal environment with unlimited resources.
What is logistic growth in populations?
Logistic growth occurs when a population’s growth rate slows as it reaches the carrying capacity of its environment due to limited resources.
What are limiting factors in population growth?
Limiting factors are environmental factors that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population, such as food supply, habitat space, or disease.
What is the predator-prey relationship in ecosystems?
In predator-prey relationships, predators hunt and consume prey, and the population size of each is influenced by the abundance of the other. This leads to cyclical fluctuations.
What is the significance of competition in ecosystems?
Competition occurs when organisms vie for the same limited resources (e.g., food, space). It can limit population size and affect species distribution.
What is a food chain?
A food chain is a sequence of organisms, each of which serves as food for the next in the chain, representing the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
What is a food web?
A food web is a complex network of interconnected food chains within an ecosystem, showing how energy and nutrients flow between different organisms.
What are producers in an ecosystem?
Producers are organisms (typically plants or algae) that produce their own food through photosynthesis, forming the base of the food chain.
What are consumers in an ecosystem?
Consumers are organisms that obtain energy by eating other organisms, such as herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers.
What is the role of decomposers in an ecosystem?
Decomposers break down dead organic material, recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem, which helps maintain the balance of nutrients and energy flow.
How can population size be estimated in the field?
Population size can be estimated using methods like random sampling, quadrat sampling, and mark-recapture techniques. These methods estimate the number of individuals in a given area.
What is the mark-recapture method?
The mark-recapture method involves capturing a sample of individuals, marking them, and releasing them back into the population. Later, a second sample is taken, and the proportion of marked individuals is used to estimate the total population size.
What are quadrat samples used for?
Quadrat sampling involves placing a square frame (quadrant) of known area in a habitat and counting the number of individuals of a species inside it to estimate population density.
