Organism Needs
Organism Characteristics
Taxonomy
Biomes
Ecosystems
100
What are four things that all living things need?
All living things must satisfy their basic needs for water, food, living space, and stable internal conditions.
100
What are the six characteristics that living things share?
All organisms are made of cells, living things have cells composed of chemicals, organisms use energy to do what they need to do, living things respond to their environment, they geo and development, and organisms all reproduce.
100
Define classification and explain its relationship to taxonomy.
Classification is the process of grouping things based on their similarities. Taxonomy is related, because it is the study of how living things are classified.
100
Define term biome and explain what separates one biome from another.
A biome is a group of land ecosystems with similar climates and organisms. Climate is determined by temperature and precipitation, and since these things limit the species of plants that can grow in an area and thus which animals can live there, climate is the major factor that separates one biome from another.
100
Why would a mountain not really be considered a biome?
If you were to hike from the bottom all the way to the top of a tall mountain (from base to summit), you would probably pass through several biomes. For example, at the base you find grasslands, but a little high up you might experience a deciduous forest. Then as the climate changes due to altitude changes, you might encounter a boreal forest and possibly tundra-like conditions near the top.
200
Use the meaning of the prefixes hetero and auto as well as the meaning of the root word troph to compare the terms autotroph and heterotroph.
Auto means self, hetero means other, and troph means feeder. So an autotroph is a "self-feeder," or an organism that make its own food, as opposed to a heterotroph (other feeder), that obtains its energy by feeding on others.
200
Define the word cell and compare unicellular and multicellular organisms.
A cell is the basic unit of structure and function in an organism. Single-celled organisms are described as unicellular, and organisms that are composed of many cells that are specialized to do certain tasks, are described as multicellular.
200
What are the levels of classification of living things? Give a mnemonic device that can help you remember this.
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Do kids pile cookies on five giant scooters?
200
Compare deciduous and coniferous trees.
Both types of trees require a fair amount of participation to grow big and tall, and both are found in forests. However, coniferous trees are found in boreal forests, where it is colder. The leaves are chapped like needles and help prevent water loss, since there is a little less rainfall than in a deciduous forest.
200
Why are deserts so dry? How does this affect plant life and temperatures?
The rate of evaporation is higher than the rate of precipitation in a desert. Sometimes a desert will get no rainfall in a year! Plants that live in a desert must be able to store water for future use. Because there is no standing water in a desert, the temperature is determined by how quickly the land heats up and cools off, to the temperature changes can be extreme. There is no really weather in the desert.
300
"Because we are heterotrophs, we get our energy indirectly from the sun." Use the terms autotroph and heterotroph to explain this statement.
Autotrophs such as plants use the sun's energy for photosynthesis to make food for themselves. Since we are heterotrophs that eat plants or smaller animals that rely on plants for food, we get our energy indirectly from the sun by eating things that rely on the sun for energy.
300
What is the most abundant (there is the most of it) chemical in cells? What are some of the other chemicals in cells and what do they do?
The most abundant chemical in cells is water. Other chemicals called carbohydrates are a cell's main energy source. Proteins and lipids (also called fats) are the building materials of cells, and nucleic acids are the genetic material (the chemical instructions that direct the cell's activities).
300
Who developed binomial nomenclature and what does it mean?
Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus devised a two-named, naming system (this is what binomial nomenclature means) of naming organisms based on their genus and species. The scientific name is two Latin words, the first of which is the organisms genus, and the second name is its species.
300
Name the six main biomes that most ecologists study and give one characteristic of each.
The six major biomes are rain forests - divided into tropical and temperate, lots of precipitation desert - little rain and often many shifts in temperature throughout the day grassland - generally more comfortable temperatures (fairly warm) and not enough rainfall for big trees to grow deciduous forest - trees lose leaves each year boreal forest - colder with mostly coniferous trees tundra -extremely cold and dry, soil remains permanently frozen
300
Why don't many plants grow in the tundra, even though it has summer months where snow melts and shallow ponds and marshes form?
Although the snow might melt, there is very little precipitation, and most of the soil is frozen all year (frozen soil is called permafrost). So what little precipitation and water there is cannot sink down deep enough for deep roots of plants and trees to form. So most of the plants includes mosses, grasses and shrubs and some trees that don't have extensive deep roots like willows. These types of vegetation only grow during the longs days of the very short summer season.
400
If organisms tend to live in a place ideally suited to their needs, explain why there is competition. Use an example to support your answer.
Because there is a limited amount of space on Earth, some organisms, although ideally suited for a particular environment, must compete for space. For example, trees in a forest compete with other trees for sunlight above ground and for water and minerals below ground.
400
Use an example to explain the relationship between the terms stimulus and response.
A stimulus (for example light, sound, a change in temperature) is a change in an organism's surroundings which cause it to react. The response is the action or change in behavior caused by the stimulus. For example, a stoplight changing colors is a stimulus, the response is that the driver either stops or starts.
400
The Bacteria and Archaea domains contain organisms that are prokaryotes. What does this mean? What else do the two domains have in common? How are they different?
A prokaryote is an organism without a nucleus, so the nucleic acids are not contained. Both domains contain unicellular prokaryotes, some of which are autotrophs, and some of which are heterotrophs. However, the structure and chemical make-up of Archaea are different from bacteria, so Archaea are ore likely to be able to live in some extreme and harsh environments such as those found on early Earth
400
Compare the two types of rain forests.
A tropical rain forest is found near the equator. It is warm and humid all year long, so there is a lot of rain and a very wide variety of plants and animals - more than 300 kinds of trees. A tropical rain forest is divided into the canopy (where the leaves of the tallest trees are), the understory (filled with smaller trees and vines that can thrive in the shade of the canopy), and the forest floor (very few plants since it is so dark) A temperate rain forest, usually found on the northwestern coast of the US, receives a lot of rain - more than 300 centimeters a year - but it has more moderate temperatures than a tropical rain forest and tends to have huge trees that grow there!
400
Name some fresh water ecosystems and explain what distinguishes them from marine ecosystems? How is an estuary related?
Freshwater ecosystems, those with fresh water as opposed to salt water, include streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. An estuary is an area where the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean. Many animals use the calm waters of estuaries for breeding grounds.
500
Use an example to explain homeostasis.
Homoeostasis is the maintenance of internal conditions. For examples, as mammals, we are warm-blooded and need to maintain an constant body temperature. So we perspire when it's hot in order to cool off, and we shiver when it's cold in order to warm up. This helps us to maintain a steady temperature despite changes in our surroundings.
500
What is spontaneous generation? Use either Redi's or Pasteur's experiment to explain why spontaneous generation is an idea no longer accepted by scientists.
Spontaneous generation was the idea that living things can arise from nonliving sources. Redi showed that flies do not arise from decaying meat by conducting a controlled experiment in which the manipulated variable was whether a jar of meat was covered or uncovered. He determined that living things come from other living things, because only the uncovered meat, which flies had access to and could lay eggs on, resulted in more flies. The covered meat, which the flies could not reach, did not produce maggots. So the maggots did not come from the meat itself, but from the eggs of flies - living things are the only source of other living things.
500
What kingdoms include eukaryotes? What do they have in common, and why are they so different?
The protist, fungus, plant, and animal kingdoms all include eukaryotes. This means that all have organisms with cells that have a nucleus. However, each kingdom has organisms with very different cell chemicals, so the kingdoms, and even the organisms within each kingdom, are all very different. For example, only animals and fungi are heterotrophs, and only plants are autotrophs. But protists contain both.
500
Compare the two types of grassland biomes.
A grassland is an area populated mostly by grasses and other smaller, non-woody plants. They receive less rain than rain forests, but more than deserts. If they are located close to the equator, they are called savannas and might receive a little more rain than those farther away from the equator, which are called prairies. Savannas might be able to grow small trees, because they do get a little more rain. Both types of grasslands tend to have larger herbivores that live there and often keep young trees and bushes from sprouting and competing with the grass for sunlight and water.
500
Describe/compare the various marine ecosystems.
Marine ecosystems include estuaries, intertidal zones, neritic zones, and the open ocean. Many organisms thrive in estuaries because of the calm water. Organisms in the intertidal zone (the shoreline)must be able to survive pounding waves and rising and receding tidal water. The neurotic zone, which extends from the intertidal zone just out over the continental shelf, has fairly shallow water where a lot of photosynthesis happens, so there is a lot of plant and animal life. In the open ocean, divided between the surface zone and the deep zone, is where organisms that swim live. Fewer organisms live in the deep zone where it is darker and colder.
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