LEVELS OF LIFE
A group of rabbits of the same species living in the same field is called what?
A population.
A duck has webbed feet that help it swim through water. Is this a structural or behavioural adaptation?
A structural adaptation.
In an ecosystem, grass uses energy from the Sun to make its own food. What type of organism is grass?
A producer.
What term describes using natural resources at a rate where they are being renewed at least as quickly as they are being used?
Sustainability.
A puddle sits in the Sun and slowly disappears as liquid water becomes water vapour. What process is happening?
Evaporation.
Over time, one group of species gradually replaces another group of species in an ecosystem. What is this process called?
Succession.
A forest contains deer, wolves, trees, insects, birds, and fungi. All of the different populations living together make up a what?
A community.
Every winter, a bird migrates south to find warmer conditions and more food. What type of adaptation is this?
A behavioural adaptation.
A bear eats berries and fish. Is the bear a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore?
An omnivore.
A person's ecological footprint measures the amount of what two broad things needed to support their lifestyle?
The land and water needed to provide their resources/energy and absorb their waste.
Water vapour cools and changes into tiny liquid droplets that form clouds. What process is this?
Condensation
A forest burns, but the soil remains. When the ecosystem begins to recover, what type of succession occurs?
Secondary succession.
Put these in order from smallest to largest: community, organism, biosphere, population, ecosystem.
Organism → Population → Community → Ecosystem → Biosphere.
Two species live together. Both receive a benefit from the relationship. What type of symbiotic relationship is this?
Mutualism
Complete the food chain:
Sun → grass → rabbit → ______
A carnivore/predator that eats rabbits, such as a fox or wolf.
A farmer uses chemicals to kill insects damaging a crop. What type of pest control is this?
Pesticides.
Rain, snow, sleet, and hail all describe what part of the water cycle?
Precipitation.
A glacier retreats and exposes bare rock. Lichens and mosses are among the first organisms to colonize the area. What type of succession is occurring?
Primary succession.
A scientist studies the fish, plants, bacteria, water, rocks, temperature, and sunlight in a lake, including how they interact. What is the scientist studying?
An ecosystem.
A tick attaches to a dog and gets food from the dog's blood. The dog is harmed. What type of relationship is this?
Parasitism.
Consider this food chain:
Sun → grass → grasshopper → frog → snake
If the frog population suddenly decreases, what would most likely happen to the grasshopper population?
The grasshopper population would increase because there would be fewer frogs eating them
A farmer releases an organism's natural enemy to control a pest instead of using a chemical pesticide. What is this method called?
Biological control.
Plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make food. What process is responsible for removing the carbon dioxide?
Photosynthesis.
Scientists repeatedly study exactly the same areas of a forest over many years to see how the ecosystem changes. What are these areas called?
Permanent plots.
A wolf's role includes what it eats, where it lives, when it is active, and how it interacts with other organisms. What term describes the role of an organism in its ecosystem?
Its niche.
A bird builds its nest in a tree. The bird gets shelter, while the tree is neither helped nor harmed. What type of relationship is this?
Commensalism.
Why is there generally less energy available at each higher level of a food chain?
Organisms use much of the energy they obtain for their activities, and energy is also lost as waste/heat. Only a small amount is passed to the next level.
A farmer introduces a species to control a pest. The species successfully kills the pest—but then begins harming native species and disrupting the food chain. What is this an example of?
An unintended consequence/risk of biological control involving an introduced species.
A pollutant enters a food web. Its concentration becomes greater in organisms at higher trophic levels. What is this process called?
Biomagnification.
Scientists measure an ecosystem before a logging project begins so they have information to compare with measurements taken after logging. What is this original information called?
Baseline data.