Unit 4: Ecology Flashcards
Why is ecology important?
Ecology studies the interactions of living organisms with their environment, crucial for understanding ecosystems.
How do producers and consumers get energy?
Producers (autotrophs) make their own food through photosynthesis; consumers (heterotrophs) consume other organisms.
Explain ecological pyramids and trophic levels.
Ecological pyramids model energy flow in ecosystems; trophic levels represent positions in a food chain.
Briefly describe matter cycles and their importance.
Matter cycles include water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles, essential for ecosystem functions.
Describe the effect of abiotic and biotic factors on biomes and biodiversity.
Abiotic factors (non-living), biotic factors (living), weather, and climate impact biomes and biodiversity.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is all the variability among living things in an ecosystem.
Describe symbiotic relationships (parasitism, mutualism, commensalism).
Parasitism benefits one, harms the other; mutualism benefits both; commensalism benefits one, no effect on the other.
Explain interspecies and intraspecies competition.
Interspecies competition occurs between different species, intraspecies within the same species.
How is carrying capacity determined?
Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals an environment can support over time.
Compare density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors.
Density-dependent factors impact population growth based on density (e.g., food shortages), density-independent factors impact growth regardless of density (e.g., weather).
