Science Ecology & Graphs Flashcards
What are ecologists?
People who study ecology
What is ecology?
Study of living things, & their interactions and their environment.
Describe what makes something a living thing
MRS GREN:
- Movement
- Reproduction
- Sensitivity
- Growth
- Respiration
- Excretion
- Nutrition
What is a Species?
A group of organisms that can reproduce and produce fertile offspring
What is a population?
Same species living in the same geographical area
What is a community?
Populations found in a habitat
What is an ecosystem?
Is the living and non-living factors of an area and how they interact with each other.
- They can be natural, such as the ocean.
- Or man-made: eg a vegetable garden is an ecosystem!
What is a biotic factor
All living organisms in an ecosystem
eg tree, mouse
What is an abiotic factor
All non living organisms in an ecosystem
eg rain, temperature
Where does all energy in the ecosystem come from?
The sun
Describe how plants capture light energy
Using photosynthesis they convert CO2, water sunlight into glucose
What is a food chain?
- Shows how energy is transferred from one organism to another.
- Starting with plants
In food chain what is a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer and tertiary consumer
- A producer is an organism that produces its own food through photosynthesis eg plant
- A primary consumer eats producers
- A secondary consumer eats primary consumers
- A tertiary consumer eats secondary consumers.
What is a trophic level in food chain?
The levels of the food chain
What is symbiosis?
- The relationship between two species.
- In symbiotic relationships, at least one of the species involved benefits from the relationship.
Mutualism
Is where both species benefit
Paratism
Where one harmed and the other benefits
How have humans impacted habitat destruction
- Clearing land for agriculture
- Housing development
- Pollution and mining,
- These destroys the ecosystem of many plants and animals which alters the food web by changing species present
What is Pollution?
- Pollution is when harmful substances get into the environment (air, water, or soil)
- It causes damage to living things and ecosystems.
Describe Biodegradable and Non Biodegradable pollutants
- Biodegradable - substances that can be broken down by living organisms into harmless substances over time - like food waste.
- Non-biodegradable - substances that do not break down causing harm eg plastic.
What is Eutrophication
- Eutrophication is when too many nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, enter water, usually from fertilizers or sewage.
- This causes excessive growth of algae and plants, which cuts oxygen levels in the water, leading to death of aquatic life.
What is conservation
- It is the looking after the worlds biodiversity
- This reducing the number of species becoming extinct
What is biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to the variety and number of living organisms populations in ecosystem including plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms
What is biodiversity affected by
Climate Change
Habitat destruction
Over harvesting
Pollution
Why is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increasing?
Burning fossil fuels
Large scale forestry
What is the effect of increasing carbon dioxide?
Global Warming
Respiratory disease
What happens when a primary consumer (rabbit) is eliminated from an ecosystem?
- When a primary consumer is eliminated it disrupts the food chain
- Eg if rabbits (primary consumers) die, grass will increase because there are no rabbits eating it.
- The animals that eat rabbits will have less food, which could see thier population decrease.
- It has a chain reaction that can affect many different animals
How do the phyiscal properties of elements differ?
Boiling point, heat, electrical conductivity, solid, liquid, gas
Why would you repeat an experiment three times?
To have more reliable results
What is an independent variable?
Is something in an experiment that changes on purpose in an experiment to see what effect it has on dependent variable
What is a dependent variable?
- It is what is being measured or observed in an experiment;
- it changes dependent on the independent variable.
What is a controlled variable?
- The variable that kept constant or unchanged
- To ensure that any effects are due to the independent variable and not other factors.
On a line graph where does the independent variable go?
Horizontal - X axis
Always start numbeing axis from?
Zero
What does the line graph need to have on it?
Title, best fit line, label axis, axes even steps, circle error points, graph should cover half of page
In a line graph what order should the title be?
Vertical then Horizontal
Where should change variable go on the graph?
Horizontal line
What do primary consumers eat?
Plants - Herbivores
What do secondary consumers eat
Animals - Carnivores
