Carrying Capacity
This term describes the maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can sustainably support.
Carrying Capacity
These species are not native to an ecosystem and can cause harm to the environment, economy, or human health.
What are invasive species?
What is the 10 percent rule in ecology?
What is only 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next?
What shape does a logistic growth curve typically take?
An S-shape
What is climate change?
Long-term alterations in temperature, precipitation, and other atmospheric conditions on Earth.
Name one factor that can affect the carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
What is food availability, water supply, living space, or environmental conditions?
One of the main impacts of invasive species is the reduction of this within ecosystems.
What is biodiversity?
Name the first trophic level in an ecosystem.
What are producers
What distinguishes logistic growth from exponential growth?
What is Logistic growth includes a carrying capacity limit, while exponential growth does not.
How does climate change affect biodiversity?
It can lead to habitat loss, altered food availability, and increased extinction rates.
When a population exceeds its carrying capacity, this can happen, leading to a decrease in population size.
What is over population
What role do humans play in the spread of invasive species?
What is through global trade, transportation, and intentional introduction?
How does the 10 percent rule affect the number of trophic levels in an ecosystem?
What is it limits the number of trophic levels due to energy loss?
How does logistic growth help ecosystems maintain balance?
It prevents overpopulation and resource depletion by stabilizing population size.
What role do humans play in climate change?
Human activities, like burning fossil fuels and deforestation, increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Carrying capacity can be represented and analyzed using these types of models.
What are mathematical or computational models?
Give an example of an invasive species and its impact on an ecosystem.
What is the Zebra Mussel invading the Great Lakes, affecting native species and water quality?
Explain how energy flow in an ecosystem supports the structure of a food web.
What is energy flow determines the number and complexity of trophic interactions?
What might cause a population to transition from exponential to logistic growth?
Increased competition for limited resources as the population grows.
Describe an impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems.
Ocean acidification, which affects marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate shells.
The carrying capacity of an ecosystem can change over time due to these types of external influences.
What are environmental changes or human activities?
Explain how mathematical models can be used to predict the spread of invasive species
What are models that use variables such as reproduction rate, dispersal mechanisms, and environmental conditions?
Describe how matter cycles and energy flows differently through an ecosystem.
What is energy flows in one direction (lost as heat), while matter cycles through biotic and abiotic components?
Provide an example of an organism that typically follows a logistic growth pattern.
Deer in a forested area where food and space are limited.
Name a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Carbon dioxide (CO2).