Ecology Foundations
Name TWO biotic factors that can affect the operation of an ecosystem.
What is ecology?
These are the living components of an ecosystem.
What are biotic factors?
This is the primary source of energy for most ecosystems.
What is the Sun?
This organism hunts and kills another organism for food.
What is a predator?
These organisms break down dead organisms and waste materials, helping to recycle nutrients.
What are decomposers?
This is the place where an organism lives.
What is a habitat?
Temperature, water, soil and wind belong to this category of environmental factors.
What are abiotic factors?
These organisms make their own food and form the first trophic level.
What are producers (autotrophs)?
This relationship occurs when two organisms compete for limited resources such as food, water or space.
What is competition?
This process removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and allows plants to use carbon to make glucose.
What is photosynthesis?
This term describes all organisms of various species living in a particular habitat.
What is a community?
This term describes the ability of an ecosystem to support organisms.
What is carrying capacity?
This type of consumer feeds only on plants.
What is a herbivore?
In this symbiotic relationship, both organisms benefit.
What is mutualism?
These bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium compounds.
What are nitrogen-fixing bacteria?
This is the position of an organism within an ecosystem and the way it lives its life.
What is a niche?
The greater the number and variety of species in an ecosystem, the greater this is.
What is biodiversity?
Only this percentage of energy is passed from one trophic level to the next.
What is 10%?
This ecological pyramid shows the mass of living tissue at each trophic level.
What is a pyramid of biomass?
DAILY DOUBLE!
A group of bacteria converts ammonium compounds into nitrites and then nitrates. Name the process and state the type of bacteria responsible.
What is nitrification? Nitrifying bacteria carry out this process.
Put these levels of organisation in the correct order, starting with the smallest: ecosystem, organism, community, population.
Organism → Population → Community → Ecosystem.
Name TWO biotic factors that can affect the operation of an ecosystem.
Any TWO of: competition, predation, disease and food availability.
DAILY DOUBLE:
Give ONE reason why energy is lost as it moves through a food chain.
Energy is lost as heat during metabolic activities.
Not all food consumed can be digested.
In this symbiotic relationship, one organism benefits while the other is harmed.
What is parasitism?
This process occurs in various forms, including sleet, snow, hail, and rain.
Precipitation