Unit 1

Question 1

Describe a Desert.

Answer 1

• dry
• little water
• little plants
• many dead plants
• covered mostly in sand
• sand dunes (not flat)
• deserted

Question 2

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 2

The network of interactions that link the living and the non-living parts of an environment.

Question 3

What needs to be in an ecosystem in order for it to be successful?

Answer 3

Things needed to survive:

• stable population levels
• no overpopulation
• stable predator / prey relationship

Question 4

What is an organism?

Answer 4

Any living thing

Question 5

What is a micro-organism?

Answer 5

A living thing that must be seen with the help of a microscope.

Question 6

What is a population?

Answer 6

A group of organisms of the same species in a given area.

Question 7

What is a community?

Answer 7

A group of populations of different species in a given area.

Question 8

What is a food chain?

Answer 8

A community of different species that rely on each other for nutrients.

Question 9

What is a nutrient?

Answer 9

A substance that an organism needs to grow and maintain its body.

Question 10

What are the parts of a food chain?

Answer 10

First - 98% of the time it is the sun
Next - Producer (plants fix solar energy and transform it into sugars= photosynthesis)
Next - First level consumer (herbivore)
Next - Second level consumer (carnivore)
Next - Second level apex (top of food chain)
Next - Third level scavenger (eats the dead animals)
Next - The Decomposer (eg. maggot, decomposer and scavenger break down dead things, biodegrades the waste)
Then back to the Producer

Question 11

What is a Food Web?

Answer 11

Food chains that are interlinked with each other. The more connections that there are, the more stable the food web is.

Question 12

Give an example of a food chain.

Answer 12

Tidal pools: 
- producer is algae
- first level consumer is sea urchin
- second level consumer is sea gull
- second level consumer is hawk
- apex predator is great horned owl
- scavenger is turkey vulture
- decomposes are bacteria
Back to beginning

Question 13

What is a population pyramid?

Answer 13

Shows how lower levels of the food chain must have a larger population than the level above them to be a stable population pyramid

Question 14

What is bioaccumulation?

Answer 14

Poison / pollution are passed on from one level of consumer to the next They are found in higher concentrations as you move up the food chain. This is not stable.

Question 15

What is the 10% rule?

Answer 15

10% of the organism lower on the food chain gets turned into energy for the organism that consumes it. Eg. 10% of the mosquito gets turned into energy for bats.

Question 16

What is overpopulation?

Answer 16

One level of consumer has a population that is higher than it should be so the level below it cannot sustain it. This is not stable and not a permanent state.

Question 17

What is primary succession?

Answer 17

The steps of going from bare rock to climax forest.

Question 18

What are the steps of primary succession?

Answer 18

1. Bare rock
2. Mosses and lichens (1-2 years, simple plants, hold water well)
3. Soil for first time (2-5 years, created by constant turnover of new and rotting plants)
4. Small plants and shrubs (5-20 years)
5. First colonizing trees (20-100 years, birch and hardwood)
6. Climax forest (shade tolerance)

Question 19

What can destroy a climax forest?

Answer 19

Man - deforestation, urbanization, farms, war

Nature - forest fires, floods (and natural disasters)

Question 20

What is adaptation?

Answer 20

Attributes or characteristics of a species that allow it to live in its environment.

Question 21

Give 3 examples of animals that are adapted to their environments.

Answer 21

1. Narwhal- problem don’t want things to eat them so has grey camouflage to match water and ice, has a flexible neck to eat at under layer of ice, can hold breath for 20 minutes so can eat at bottom of ocean, has horn to detect and break through thin ice to breathe, thick blubber to keep out the cold
   2.

Question 22

What is an apex predator?

Answer 22

An animal that eats other animals but nothing eats it. It is at the top of the food chain.