Unit 3 Ecology TJB

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 produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals.

Question 3

Biotic Factors

Answer 3

Biotic factors are living things within an ecosystem.

Question 4

Bioaccumulation

Answer 4

Bioaccumulation is defined as the build-up of something inside an organism.

Question 5

Carbon sink

Answer 5

A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.

Question 6

Carnivorve

Answer 6

A carnivore is an organism that mostly eats meat, or the flesh of animals.

Question 7

Commensalism

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Competition

Answer 8

Competition is a set of interactions between organisms and species to get a limited resource.

Question 9

Consumer

Answer 9

Any organism that does not make its own energy.

Question 10

Decomposer

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Ecosystem

Answer 11

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 12

Energy Pyramid

Answer 12

An energy pyramid is a model that shows the flow of energy from one trophic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem.

Question 13

Food Chain

Answer 13

A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.

Question 14

Food Web

Answer 14

A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.

Question 15

Habitat

Answer 15

The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Question 16

Herbivore

Answer 16

An animal that feeds on plants.

Question 17

Heterotrophs

Answer 17

A heterotroph is an organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients.

Question 18

Leaching

Answer 18

Leaching is a process in which water-soluble substances are washed out from the soil.

Question 19

Limiting factor

Answer 19

A limiting factor is anything that constrains a population’s size and slows or stops it from growing.

Question 20

Mutualism

Answer 20

A relationship in which both species are mutually benefited.

Question 21

Niche

Answer 21

In ecology, the term niche describes the role an organism plays in a community.

Question 22

Ocean acidification

Answer 22

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 23

Omnivore

Answer 23

An omnivore is an organism that regularly consumes a variety of material, including plants, animals, algae, and fungi.

Question 24

Parasitism

Answer 24

Parasitism is generally defined as a relationship between the two living species in which one organism is benefitted at the expense of the other.

Question 25

Phytoplankton

Answer 25

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.

Question 26

Pioneer Species

Answer 26

The species that first colonize new habitats created by disturbance.

Question 27

Population

Answer 27

A population is defined as a group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area.

Question 28

Predation

Answer 28

The preying of one animal on others.

Question 29

Predator

Answer 29

Predators are organisms that hunt and kill other organisms for food.

Question 30

Prey

Answer 30

Prey is any animal that serves as a food source for another animal.

Question 31

Primary Succession

Answer 31

Primary succession, type of ecological succession in which plants and animals first colonize a barren, lifeless habitat.

Question 32

Producer

Answer 32

A producer is an organism that creates its own food or energy.

Question 33

Sustainability

Answer 33

Sustainability is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain (or ideally increase) its biodiversity whilst simultaneously providing humans with the resources they need over a long period of time.

Question 33

Secondary Succession

Answer 33

Secondary succession takes place where a disturbance did not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment.

Question 33

Species Overshoot

Answer 33

Overshoot refers to the growth of a population beyond the environment’s or ecosystem’s ability to support that species.