Quiz: Ecology Flashcards
Define population
A group of organisms of one species that interbreed and live in the same place at the same time.
Give an example of a population
Lions living in the South Sahara Desert and in parts of southern and eastern Africa.
Define community
An interacting group of various species in a common location.
Give an example of a community
A forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi.
Define ecosystem
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Give an example of an ecosystem
Coral reefs
List the levels of ecology in order of increasing complexity
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Define abiotic factors
Non-living patterns: climate, soil, chemical composition, weather, etc.
Define biotic factors
Living components: organisms, prey/predators, symbiotic/parasitic relationships.
Natural selection adapts organisms to the abiotic and biotic factors of their environment. If an organism cannot adapt it will go extinct. Imagine a real forest ecosystem abundant with plants and animals. List several abiotic factors that might be important in this type of ecosystem.
Water, weather, climate, soil
Natural selection adapts organisms to the abiotic and biotic factors of their environment. If an organism cannot adapt it will go extinct. Imagine a real forest ecosystem abundant with plants and animals. List several biotic factors that might be important in this type of ecosystem.
Relationships between prey and predators
What process creates new genes?
Mutations
What process recombines genes into new combinations?
Sexual reproduction
How did the predator-prey simulation demonstrate coevolution?
It showed how certain species are able to survive through each generation while other species become extinct.
Which prey color became more common over time?
The black prey
Beyond survival, what does evolutionary “fitness” mean?
The ability of an offspring to survive and reproduce
What is an owl pellet?
A mixture of the food that an owl has consumed and regurgitated (due to its inability to digest fur, bones, teeth, feathers, and insect shells from the food).
Why must owls create pellets?
Because owls cannot digest its contents (fur, bones, teeth, feathers, etc.)
What does an owl pellet tell us?
It tells us the types of animals owls eat (such as mice) and tells us what types of animals live in the owls’ environments.
What are trophic levels?
The feeding levels in an ecological community
What is a food web?
A diagram of the distribution of energy in an ecosystem
Define ecology.
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
