Organism Relationships
What is mutualism?
A symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.
What is a tropic level?
Each step in a food chain or a food web.
What is it called when plants take in carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and oxygen? (With the help of sunlight)
Photosynthesis
What is an herbivore?
An organism that consumes plants.
What is the difference between a biotic and an abiotic factor?
A biotic factor is living where an abiotic factor is nonliving.
True or False? Competition only occurs between two organisms of the same species.
False! Competition can happen between different species as well. For example: rabbits and deer can compete for the same food source.
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is small and simple. It shows the relationship between few organisms.
A food web is more complex and shows the relationships between many organisms in an ecosystem.
What is the process in which nitrogen gas is captured and converted into a usable form of nitrogen?
Nitrogen Fixation
What is an omnivore?
An organism that consumes plants and other organisms (meat).
What is a limiting factor?
biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the number, distribution, or reproduction of a population within a community
Remora Fish use a suction cup like appendage to stick to sharks and larger fish. They feed off of food scraps that the sharks leave behind. What type of relationship is this?
Commensalism
What are three things that can be observed in an ecological pyramid?
Biomass, Energy, Number of Organisms, Type of Organisms
Name three different processes that are included in the water cycle?
Options: Precipitation, Evaporation, Condensation, Transpiration, Runoff, Percolation, Groundwater, Bodies of Water
If an organism only consumes insects, what kind of organism is it?
Carnivore
What is a biological community?
A level of organization that includes all living things within an area/ecosystem.
What is the difference between parasitism and predation?
Parasitism has a host and a parasite, where predation has a predator and a prey. Predation usually happens relatively quickly, involving hunting and consuming. Parasitism can occur over a slow period of time and may never kill the organism.
What are the 5 trophic levels that you may find in an ecological pyramid?
Producer, Primary Consumer, Secondary Consumer, Tertiary Consumer, Quaternary Consumer
What is unique about the phosphorus cycle?
It is the only cycle that does not have a portion involved in the atmosphere. (never found in the air)
What is the difference between a detritivore and a decomposer?
Decomposers are organisms that break down organic material to return its nutrients to the environment. Detritivores do this as well, but they eat the organic material. Decomposers do not necessarily consume anything.
What is tolerance in Ecology?
An organism's ability to tolerate a limiting factor. An organism's ability to survive in certain conditions.
What is a symbiotic relationship?
A close relationship between two organisms that live near each other.
Roughly how much energy is converted into a tropic level from the one below it? How is the energy lost?
What is the exact opposite of photosynthesis? Humans and other breathing organisms will complete this.
Cellular Respiration
What is the difference between an autotroph and a heterotroph?
Autotrophs will automatically make their own food, where heterotrophs have to consumer something in order to gain energy.
What is a niche?
The role or position and organism has in its environment.