Food Webs
Kelp → sea urchin → sea otter
In the model below, which organism is the producer?
Kelp
What is the largest population an environment can support over time called?
Carrying capacity.
Define Poaching
The illegal hunting of animals.
Scientists are exploring ways to bring back a bird that resembles the extinct passenger pigeon. What is this process called?
De-extinction
What does C-E-R stand for?
Claim Evidence Reasoning
Acorns → squirrel
What does the arrow pointing from acorns to squirrels show?
Energy transfers from acorns to squirrels when squirrels eat the acorns.
A pond has plenty of food for frogs, but a drought shrinks the pond. What abiotic factor is limiting the frog population?
Water availability.
What does direct harvesting mean?
when animals are removed from their habitat by humans.
Weasels ate passenger pigeons. After the pigeons went extinct, other prey were scarce (low). What happened to the carrying capacity for weasels?
It decreased.
What does biodiversity mean?
Diversity of life
In acorns → passenger pigeon → weasel, which organism gets energy directly from the pigeon?
The weasel.
After a drought, there is plenty of nesting space but half as much grass. What resource is most likely to limit the rabbit population?
Food
Why were elephants being hunted down during the Mozambican Civil War?
For their tusks
Define an ecosystem engineer
An organism that changes its physical environment, affecting other organisms’ habitats and resources.
Define Abiotic and Biotic Factors.
Abiotic = non-living
Biotic = living
Squirrels and passenger pigeons both eat acorns. Pigeons disappear, but acorn production stays the same. Why might the squirrel population grow?
Less competition for acorns.
A deer population changes from 25 → 58 → 81 → 79 → 80. What is its approximate carrying capacity?
80
K → B
Explain this concept.
A clay bird hits a screen and keeps its shape. What did the test measure?
Deformation after impact.
A town wants fewer bird-window collisions and can spend up to $500. Which is the constraint?
The $500
Rabbits and grasshoppers both eat grass. Frogs eat grasshoppers. If the frog population drops and grass is already scarce, what could happen to the rabbit population, and why?
Rabbits could decline because more grasshoppers compete for grass.
Carrying capacity can be linked to what real world concept?
Elevators
Explain the key differences between the two types of ecological succession.
Primary succession = bare rock
Secondary succession = soil is present
A building has a $200 budget. Mesh costs $180 and prevents deformation in 3 of 3 trials. Wax paper costs $40 and prevents it in 1 of 3 trials. Which material best meets the goal of reducing deformation within budget, and what is the trade-off?
Mesh. Better protection, higher cost.
What month is Mr. Rodriguez's birthday?
March