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Biology - Year 11 Yearly > Term 3 - Modules 3 and 4: Environment and Organisms > Flashcards

Term 3 - Modules 3 and 4: Environment and Organisms Flashcards

1
Q

What is a trophic interaction?

A

It is when one organism is consumed by another.

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2
Q

What is another word for an autotroph?

A

A producer

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3
Q

What is another word for consumer?

A

A heterotroph

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4
Q

What is a food chain?

A

A single chain of feeding patterns. It shows a linear process in which an organism is consequently consumed by another in increasing trophic order.
(eg: grass —> rabbit —> fox —> eagle)

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5
Q

What is a food web?

A

This is the combination and interaction of numerous food chains and shows the interaction and feeding patterns of numerous organisms. It is non-linear and one organism can be in many different trophic levels.

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6
Q

What is a biomass pyramid?

A

It indicates the relative amount of matter in the organisms of a community. There is always more producers than consumers and more herbivores than carnivores.

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7
Q

What is an energy pyramid?

A

These show the amount of energy a trophic level has in a community. The lower the organism on a food chain the more energy it has available to it. In a stable community, the biomass and energy levels decrease rapidly as the trophic level increases.

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8
Q

What do population trends graphs show?

A

The change in size of population influenced by birth rate, mortality, immigration and emigration.

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9
Q

Explain selection pressure.

A

When an environment changes and some resources become limited, the organisms that are better suited to their environment survive the pressure of selection. This is often referred to as ‘Survival of the Fittest’. Organisms that survive are able to reproduce and pass on their favourable genes to their offspring, therefore drive natural selection.

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10
Q

What are abiotic and biotic factors of an environment?

A

Biotic - the living components of an environment.
Abiotic - the non-living components of an environment.

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11
Q

What are the three simplest community interactions and the three sub-interactions of the third one?

A
  • Predetation
  • Competition
  • Symbiosis
    • Mutualism
    • Commensalism
    • Paratism
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12
Q

What is the community interaction “predetation”?

A

It is a predator-prey relationship where the predator obtains its food by killing and eating another organism.
These relationships are positive for on organism and can be positive/neutral/negative for the other.
Populations of predators and prey are closely linked - the predator number rise and fall just after the prey numbers rise and fall.

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13
Q

What is the difference between interspecific competition and intraspecific competition?

A

Interspecific - competition between different species over the same resource.
Intraspecific - competition between the same species over the same resource.

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14
Q

What is usually the long term result of competition of species over a resource?

A

One of the competitors will usually be more successful and drive out or significantly reduce the number of other competitors.

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15
Q

What is the community interaction “symbiosis”?

A

The term for interactions in which two organisms live together in a close relationship that is beneficial to at least one of them. It usually involves providing protection, food, cleansing and transportation.
There are three types:
Mutualism - both species benefit (+ / +)
Commensalism - one benefits and the other is unaffected (+ / 0)
Paratism - one benefits and the other is harmed (+ / -)

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16
Q

What is a positive consequence of symbiosis?

A

Increases biodiversity and therefore allows for more resilient ecosystems.

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17
Q

Define adaptation.

A

The process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited for its environment and therefore increases its likelihood of survival and reproduction.

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18
Q

What is a population graph?

A

A great way to visualise population estimates of species.

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19
Q

What are population trends?

A

The direction of change in the total number of species inhabiting an area.

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20
Q

What are population growth curves?

A

The usual pattern of growth for a natural population.
Has 3 phases:
1) Slow growth: initially small numbers of individuals reproduce
2) Rapid growth: the ever-increasing number of individuals continue to reproduce. The population size double during each interval of time.
3) Stable state, no growth: Growth is limited by factors such as increased predatation or food supply. The graph therefore levels out, some cyclic fluctuations due to variations in factors.

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21
Q

What are the reasons for population changes?

A
  • Amount of food available
  • A change in an abiotic factor (eg: light)
  • Competition for food, shelter, water, etc. with another biotic factor
  • Disease
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22
Q

Define the three types of adaptations.

A

1) Structural - a physical characteristic (eg: bright coloured flowers)
2) Physiological - an organisms function or progress (eg: snakes producing venom)
3) Behavioural: how the organism acts (eg: migration)

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23
Q

Why is a callus on a guitarist’s fingers not an example of an adaptation?

A

Sometimes organisms gain features that are advantageous to their survival but are the result of the organism’s life experience. This is not an adaptation as adaptations are always genetically based.

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24
Q

What are the three main abiotic factors that affect organisms in Australia?

A

1) Water availability - lack of water
2) High exposure to sunlight
3) High temperatures

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25
Q

What is the name of plants that are adapted to dry conditions? How are they adapted?

A

Xerophytes. They reduce the surface area of their leaves to minimise water loss (eg: cactus plants).

26
Q

Who proposed the theory of natural selection? What four points was their theory based on?

A

Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.
Their theory was based on:
1) Variation (which become adaptations)
2) Natural selection/Selective pressure
3) Survival of the fittest/pass on traits to offspring
4) Isolation/specification

27
Q

What is variation in organisms?

A

Differences in the characteristics (appearance, genetic make up, functioning (physiology) and behaviour) of individuals within a population.

28
Q

Why does variation occur in organisms?

A
  • similar characteristics are inherited from our parents which may vary from other parents
  • differences in nutrition and lifestyle while growing up can affect appearance (this is not passed onto offspring)
  • mutations can affect varitations
29
Q

What is radioactive dating and what does it aid in? Define radioactive elements.

A

Radioactive dating is a method of dating rocks and minerals using radioactive isotopes. Radioactive elements are unstable elements that gradually break down into different elements.
As a rock gets older, it contains less and less of the radio-active element.

30
Q

What is gas analysis and what can it be used for?

A

This is the analysis of substances in a gaseous state, quantitative and qualitative data. It can be used to analyse ice cores through tracking trapped carbon dioxide.

31
Q

What is palaeontology?

A

The study of fossils, microfossils, preserved rocks, stromatolites and evolution of life on Earth.

32
Q

What does studying rocks with oxygen show to scientists?

A

Oxygen is the product from photosynthesis - autotroph organisms, therefore the study of rocks with oxygen shows when plant life forms evolved and expanded.

33
Q

Define the difference between the terms anoxic and oxic.

A

Anoxic - without oxygen
Oxic - with oxygen

34
Q

Why are Aboriginal rock paintings important in studying the evolution of Earth?

A

Aboriginal rock art represents a record of human observations of the environment of the time, depicting the flora and fauna and changes in their abundance, so therefore scientists can connect these observations with scientific data to form a more comprehensive picture of the Earth in the past.

35
Q

What is geology?

A

The study of rocks, the banded ion formations in them, the Earth’s structure and composition, and overall how the Earth was formed.

36
Q

What was the name of the giant landmass once being all the continents?

A

Continents were once all attached in a single landmass called Pangaea.

37
Q

What are the names of the two parts (southern and northern) that split from Pangaea?

A

Laurasia - northern part.
Gondwana - southern part.

38
Q

What modern day continents was Gondwana made up of?

A

It was comprised of current landmasses of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand.

39
Q

What was the original climate of Australia before it started breaking off?

A

It was a moist climate with evergreen forests.

40
Q

Why are the animals and plants in Australia so different to the rest of the world?

A

40 million years ago Australia broke off the giant landmass Gondwana and made its way to the north. It was an isolated world on its own for 30 million years, so the animals and plants there evolved differently to the rest of the world.

41
Q

What is microevolutionary change?

A

It involves small-scale changes within a population, which is a group of organisms that share the same gene pool and can be interbreed. It occurs over shorter periods of time and generally doesn’t produce a new species. For example, different breeds of dogs.

42
Q

What is macroevolutionary change?

A

It refers to the evolution of groups larger than species over millions of years. This is what is observed when studying the history of life on Earth.

43
Q

Name the 5 evolutionary stages of a horse from earliest to modern day.

A

Hyracotherium
Mesohippus
Merychippus
Plioippus
Equus

44
Q

Outline the difference between convergent evolution and divergent evolution?

A

Divergent evolution is when individuals in one species, or closely related species, acquire enough variations in their traits that it leads to two distinct new species (eg: elephants and mammoth).
Convergent evolution, on the other hand, is when two unrelated species develop similar traits because they live in similar environments (eg: birds, bats and butterflies).

45
Q

What is the theory of punctuated equilibrium? Who put it forward?

A

In the 1970’s Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Edridge proposed that evolution occurs in short bursts of rapid change, followed by long periods of stability within populations.

46
Q

How is variation and natural selection in bacteria dangerous to humans?

A

Variation exists in the bacteria population too - some are resistant to antibiotics while some are not. Due to natural selection, the bacteria which are resistant to antibiotics survive and therefore the resistant genes will INCREASE in the population. As a result, antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, disability and death.

47
Q

What is the process of DNA hybridisation?

A

The single strands of DNA are collected from two species.
Heat is applied to the molecules to separate each into two single strands.
Separated strands of DNA from the two species are mixed.
Heat is applied again and the temperature required to separate them indicates how closely related they are.

48
Q

If two species’ DNA strands require high temperature to be separated in DNA hybridisation, does that indicate the species are closely related or more distant?

A

In DNA hybridisation, higher temperatures mean more closely related.

49
Q

What is effecting the increase of human populations?

A
  • Medical breakthrough (the use of antibiotics, better hygiene practices, vaccinations and screening)
  • The use of biotechnology (production of disease-resistant, water-efficient plants and animals)
  • The use of antibiotics and growth hormones (allowed for intense farming production)
50
Q

Outline a flowchart of the process of eutrophication.

A

Excess chemical fertilisers leads to run-off and ground water contamination —-> the inorganic salts dissolved in ground water eventually enter lakes, ponds and rivers —-> fish begin to die —-> increased nutrients absorbed by algae —-> increased growth of algae, shading out other plants —-> increased decomposition of algae uses up oxygen in the water —-> entire ecosystem dies, including plants, algae and fish.

51
Q

What are the human-induced causes of soil erosion?

A
  • Removal of vegetation - leaving land bare
  • Soil cultivation practices break up the soil
  • Hard-hooved animals grazing on the land that break up the soil
  • Compaction of soil by heavy machinery causes water to pool on surfaces
  • Increased salt concentration in the soil
52
Q

What are some control measures for soil erosion? Name at least 3.

A
  • Use minimum till/direct drilling techniques
  • Do not leave soil fallow (soil depleted of nutrients) for long periods
  • Reduce stocking rates for livestock and employ rational grazing
  • Retain stubble after harvest
  • Grow crops on slopes
  • Use channels and terraces to store and redirect water
  • Leave riparian buffer strips to reduce riverbank erosion
  • Make windbreaks
  • Use drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation
53
Q

What are some control measures for salination? Name at least 3.

A
  • Replant deep-rooted perennial plants
  • Use drip irrigation instead of flow irrigation
  • Mulch garden beds
  • Plant salt-tolerant plant species
  • Time sprinkler systems
54
Q

What is the control measure for eutrophication? (there is only 1)

A
  • Reduce run-off into streams of nitrogen and phosphorus (containing fertilisers and detergents)
55
Q

What are some control measures of introduced species? Name at least 2.

A
  • Use quarantine and border control methods
  • Use methods of control such as biological and chemical
  • Manage weeds by physical removal in appropriate situations
56
Q

What are the control measures of land-clearing? Name at least 1 (there’s two).

A
  • Replant deep-rooted native vegetation
  • Re-establish ground cover
57
Q

What is the control measure of pesticide residues? (There is only 1)

A
  • Use intergrated pest management systems that incorporate several strategies besides chemicals (for eg: traps, barriers, genetic engineering).
58
Q

What is a common aftereffect of metal mining?

A

It has a tendency to contaminate and change the chemistry of the land, soil and water, effecting the basis of the local ecosystem.

59
Q

What does the Australian mining site rehabilitation require to be done?

A
  • Before the mining begins, the area should be assessed to determine the best individual rehabilitation process for it
  • Then, vegetation, seeds and seedling must be cleared, stockpiled and cared for so that then they can be later re-introduced.
  • Tailings (waste produced from processing) must be treated and cared for appropriately
  • When mining is completed the pit must be filled with water or wither landfill and become a dam
  • The stockpile soil should then be respread over the area and vegetation needs to slowly introduced in stages
  • Eventually the mining site is rehabilitated to allow native animals and plants to return
60
Q

What is the difference between uniform distribution of a species and non-uniform distribution?

A

A uniform distribution is a distribution where any point between A and B is equally likely. A non-uniform distribution were different points between A and B are not equally likely.

61
Q

What do acids and bases taste like?

A

Acids taste sour, bases taste bitter and feel soapy.

Biology - Year 11 Yearly (3 decks)

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