Unit 1

Question 1

Define ecology.

Answer 1

The study of the relationship between living organisms and their environment.

Question 2

Define ecosystem.

Answer 2

All of the interacting parts of a biological community and its environment.

Question 3

Define symbiosis.

Answer 3

An interaction between living species living in close proximate to each other in a relationship that lasts over time.

Question 4

Define mutualism.

Answer 4

A symbiotic relationship between two different types of organisms that is beneficial to both organisms.

Question 5

Define commensailism.

Answer 5

A symbiotic relationship between two different types of organisms in with one partner benefits and the other neither loses or benefits.

Question 6

Define parasitism.

Answer 6

A symbiotic relationship between two different types of organisms in with one partner is harmed and the other benefits.

Question 7

Define parasite.

Answer 7

An organism that lives in or on another organism and feeds off it.

Question 8

Define host.

Answer 8

The organism that a parasite feeds and lives on.

Question 9

Define sustainability.

Answer 9

Resources of nature are being renewed at least as quickly as they are being used and all wastes are able to be completely absorbed.

Question 10

Define ecological footprint.

Answer 10

A calculation of the total area of land and water needed to supply all of the materials and energy human uses, as well as absorb the waste product.

Question 11

Define habitat.

Answer 11

The location where an organism lives.

Question 12

What are the four basic needs of all organisms?

Answer 12

Food, water, a suitable habitat and the ability to exchange gasses.

Question 13

Define adaptation.

Answer 13

An inherited characteristic that helps an organism survive its environment.

Question 14

Define producers.

Answer 14

Plants that use energy from the sun to make the nutrients that they need to survive.

Question 15

Define consumers.

Answer 15

Organisms that eat the food made by producers; can be either a herbivore, omnivore or carnivore.

Question 16

Define herbivore.

Answer 16

An animal that only eats plant material, i.e grasshoppers, beavers and moose.

Question 17

Define omnivore.

Answer 17

An animal that easts other animals and plant material, i.e bears, racoons and people.

Question 18

Define carnivore.

Answer 18

An animal that eats only eats other animals, i.e lynxes, wolves and hawks.

Question 19

Define predator.

Answer 19

An organism that catches and eats other organisms of the same species.

Question 20

Define prey.

Answer 20

An organism that is caught and eaten by another organism of a different species.

Question 21

What is a food chain?

Answer 21

A series of types of living things in which each one uses the next lower member of the series as a source of food.

Question 22

What is an Example of a pyramid of numbers?

Answer 22

6 robins
10 000 caterpillars
30 000 maple Leaves

Question 23

Define food web.

Answer 23

The network of feeding relationships among organisms.

Question 24

Define biomass.

Answer 24

The total mass of living matter in an environment; often expressed in terms of dry weight per unit area.

Question 25

What is the water cycle?

Answer 25

A body of water evaporates and condenses into a cloud which will precipitate and the rain water will go down into a body of water.

Question 26

Define pollutants.

Answer 26

Substances that cause pollution.

Question 27

Define pollution.

Answer 27

A collective term for the different types of harmful materials that are released into the environment through human activities.

Question 28

Define acid rain.

Answer 28

Rain that contains higher levels of acid than normal.

Question 29

What is bioacumilation?

Answer 29

Pollutants move from level to level in a food web. Small animals collect the pollutants than bigger animals eat the smaller ones and so on. Every transition of the pollutants the pollutant level increases.

Question 30

Define succession.

Answer 30

The process in which new species gradually replace old species in an environment

Question 31

Define primary succession.

Answer 31

The gradual growth of organisms in an area that was previously bare.

Question 32

Define secondary succession.

Answer 32

The gradual growth of organisms in an area that was formerly home to many different species. Ex: the regeneration of a forest after a fire.

Question 33

Define biological control.

Answer 33

A method of controlling pests using their natural enemies.

Question 34

What is an introduced species?

Answer 34

Species with are introduced into an environment that they are not naturally from. Ex: a zebra muscle.

Question 35

What is ecosystem monitoring?

Answer 35

A way to check the condition of an ecosystem by comparing the results of investigations at different times.

Question 36

What is an indicator specie?

Answer 36

A plant or animal species that help to indicate environmental change. Ex. Amphibians.

Question 37

what is a manipulated variable?

Answer 37

In an experiment, a condition that is selected or adjusted to see what effect the change will have on the responding variable.

Question 38

What is a responding variable?

Answer 38

In an experiment, a condition that is changed as a result of changes to the manipulated variable.

Question 39

Define diversity.

Answer 39

A measure of how manny different species live in am ecosystem; an ecosystem with many species has a greater diversity.