Unit 2 List 1 Ecology JGC

Question 1

Abiotic Factors

Answer 1

An abiotic factor is a non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment.

Question 2

Autotrophs

Answer 2

An autotroph is an organism that can convert abiotic sources of energy into energy stored in organic compounds, which can be used by other organisms.

Question 3

Biotic Factors

Answer 3

Biotic factors are living things within an ecosystem

Question 4

Bioaccumulation

Answer 4

Bioaccumulation means an increase in the concentration of a chemical over time in a biological organism compared to the chemical’s concentration in the environment.

Question 5

Carnivore

Answer 5

A carnivore is an animal that feeds on other animals.

Question 6

Commensalism

Answer 6

an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm.

Question 6

Carbon Sink

Answer 6

A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that absorbs and stores the atmosphere’s carbon with physical and biological mechanisms.

Question 7

Competition

Answer 7

In biology, competition refers to the rivalry between or among living things for territory, resources, goods, mates, etc.

Question 8

Consumer

Answer 8

A consumer, according to the definition in biology, is an organism that cannot produce its own food and must eat other plants and/or animals to get energy.

Question 9

Decomposer

Answer 9

an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.

Question 10

Ecosystem

Answer 10

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 11

Food Chain

Answer 11

A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web, often starting with an autotroph, also called a producer, and typically ending at an apex predator, detritivore, or decomposer. It is not the same as a food web.

Question 11

Energy Pyramid

Answer 11

An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bioproductivity at each trophic level in an ecosystem.

Question 12

Food Web

Answer 12

A food web consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.

Question 13

Habitat

Answer 13

A habitat is the natural home or environment of a plant, animal, or other organism.

Question 14

Leaching

Answer 14

Leaching is the loss or extraction of certain materials from a carrier into a liquid.

Question 14

Herbivore

Answer 14

an animal that feeds on plants.

Question 15

Heterotrophs

Answer 15

A heterotroph is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but not producers.

Question 16

Niche

Answer 16

In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors and how it in turn alters those same factors.

Question 17

Limiting Factor

Answer 17

A limiting factor is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system. The limiting factor is in a pyramid shape of organisms going up from the producers to consumers and so on.

Question 18

Mutualism

Answer 18

mutualism, association between organisms of two different species in which each benefits.

Question 19

Ocean Acidification

Answer 19

Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

Question 20

Parasitism

Answer 20

parasitism, relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes without killing the host organism.

Question 20

Omnivore

Answer 20

an animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin.

Question 21

Phytoplankton

Answer 21

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν, meaning ‘plant’, and πλαγκτός, meaning ‘wanderer’ or ‘drifter’.

Question 22

Population

Answer 22

The term population biology has been used with different meanings. In 1971, Edward O. Wilson et al. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics.

Question 23

Pioneer Species

Answer 23

Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession.

Question 24

Predation

Answer 24

Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism.

Question 25

Predator

Answer 25

Animal that hunts another animals for energy/food.

Question 26

Prey

Answer 26

Animal that is being hunted

Question 27

Primary Succession

Answer 27

Primary succession is the beginning step of ecological succession where species known as pioneer species colonize an uninhabited site, which usually occurs in an environment devoid of vegetation and other organisms.

Question 28

Producer

Answer 28

Producers are organisms that make their own food.

Question 29

Secondary Succession

Answer 29

Secondary succession is the secondary ecological succession of a plant’s life.

Question 30

Species Overshoot

Answer 30

occurs when the population of a species significantly exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment.

Question 31

Sustainability

Answer 31

Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.