Unit 1: Ecology

Question 1

Dissolved Oxygen

Answer 1

The amount of oxygen that is present in water

Question 2

Turbidity

Answer 2

How hazy or cloudy the water is

Question 3

pH

Answer 3

A measure of how acidic or basic a solution is

Question 4

Nitrates

Answer 4

NO3-
Molecules made of nitrogen and oxygen

Question 5

Eutrophication

Answer 5

The process by which nutrient pollution, such as from nitrogen and phosphorus, leads to excessive algae growth and subsequent oxygen depletion.

Question 6

Why is nitrogen essential to support life?

Answer 6

It is what DNA and proteins are made of.

Question 7

Why is phosphorus essential for living organisms?

Answer 7

It is a key component of DNA and RNA.

Question 8

Where is most of the carbon on earth stored?

Answer 8

The ocean

Question 9

How much energy gets cycled back to decomposers?

Answer 9

All of it

Question 10

All the ____ that an animal does gets passed on to the consumer

Answer 10

Growth

Question 11

If nitrogen-fixing bacteria were destroyed by a virus, the most likely result would be what?

Answer 11

A decrease in nitrogen compounds available to organisms

Question 12

What event would most likely occur if the number of nitrogen-fixing bacteria were reduced within an ecosystem?

Answer 12

More nitrogen gas would be released into the atmosphere.

Question 13

Which process converts organic nitrogen into an inorganic form that can be used by plants?

Answer 13

Decomposition

Question 14

Through what activity do animals get carbon they need for their bodies?

Answer 14

Eating

Question 15

How does nitrogen in the atmosphere become beneficial to plants and eventually to animals?

Answer 15

Nitrogen must be converted into a useful form by bacteria.

Question 16

Nitrification

Answer 16

Ammonia to nitrite to nitrate (N4+ to NO2- to NO3-)

Question 17

Denitrification

Answer 17

Nitrogen compounds (nitrite and nitrate) into nitrogen gases

Question 18

Ammonification

Answer 18

Dead plant and animal matter decomposes and nitrogen is released NO−3 → NO−2 → NH+4

Question 19

Heterotrophs

Answer 19

An organism that eats another organism

Question 20

Detrivore

Answer 20

An organism that feeds on dead matter

Question 21

Abiotic

Answer 21

Not Alive

Question 22

Biotic

Answer 22

Alive

Question 23

Producer

Answer 23

Makes glucose

Question 24

Consumer

Answer 24

Eats plants or animals; eats another organism to survive

Question 25

Decomposer

Answer 25

Decomposes dead organisms into detritus

Question 26

Ecological pyramid

Answer 26

The amount of energy passed from each trophic level; about 10%

Question 27

Biomass

Answer 27

Renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals

Question 28

Trophic Level

Answer 28

The position an organism occupies in the food chain

Question 29

Food Web

Answer 29

A larger, interconnected food chain

Question 30

Primary succession

Answer 30

Plants and animals colonize a barren, lifeless habitat.

Question 31

Secondary succession

Answer 31

Occurs in areas where there was previous soil and vegetation

Question 32

Pioneer species

Answer 32

Lichen and moss

Question 33

Biodiversity

Answer 33

The variety of life on Earth, in all its forms, from genes and bacteria to entire ecosystems such as forests or coral reefs.

Question 34

Ecosystem diversity

Answer 34

The variety of different habitats, communities, and ecological processes.

Question 35

Species diversity

Answer 35

The number of different species that are represented in a given community.

Question 36

Genetic diversity

Answer 36

The biological variation that occurs within species that makes it possible for them to adapt when the environment changes

Question 37

Resilience

Answer 37

The ability of a system to continue functioning amid and recover from a disturbance.

Question 38

Ecosystem services

Answer 38

The direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide humans

Question 39

Climate change

Answer 39

Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns

Question 40

Global warming

Answer 40

The long-term heating of Earth’s surface due to human activities

Question 41

Deforestation

Answer 41

The removal and destruction of a forest from land that is then converted to non-forest use

Question 42

Invasive species

Answer 42

Species that are non-native to the ecosystem under consideration

Question 43

Pollutant

Answer 43

A substance that pollutes something, especially water or the atmosphere.

Question 44

Ozone layer

Answer 44

It is in the stratosphere and it absorbs a portion of the radiation from the sun, preventing it from reaching the planet’s surface.

Question 45

Smog

Answer 45

A type of intense air pollution.

Question 46

Biological magnification

Answer 46

Harmful chemicals enter the food chain

Question 47

Renewable resource

Answer 47

Resources that continue to exist despite being consumed or that can replenish themselves over a period of time even as they are used.

Question 48

Nonrenewable resource

Answer 48

Energy resources that will run out or will not be replenished in our lifetimes

Question 49

Algal Bloom

Answer 49

Toxin-producing algae grow excessively in a body of water

Question 50

Density-independent factors

Answer 50

Are not influenced by a species population size

Question 51

Density-dependent factors

Answer 51

They have varying impacts according to population size. Different species populations in the same ecosystem will be affected differently.