vocab
Ecology
The study of the interactions among living things, and between living things and their surroundings.
One way scientists monitor and observe populations is by conducting _______?
Surveys
factors that are living, such as plant, animals, fungi, and bacteria
Biotic
Another name for consumers are?
Heterotrophs
What types of consumers only eat animals?
Carnivores
The hydrologic cycle is also known as?
The water cycle
Some energy is lost as?
Heat
Biodiversity
The assortment, or variety, of living things in an ecosystem.
Where is a field experiment preformed?
Where the selected organism lives
what are factors that are nonliving things such as moisture,temperature, wind, sunlight, and soil?
Abiotic
How does the stability of an ecosystem depend on its producers?
They provide the basis for the ecosystem’s energy.
The stability of a food web relies on its?
Producers
What are four elements that cycle through ecosystems?
Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, and Phosphorus
Producers are at the _____ of the energy pyramid?
Bottom
Biomass
a measure of the total dry mass of organisms in a given area.
What are the three general methods used by ecologists to study organisms
Observation, experimentation, and modeling
Rain forests have a very high amount of _______?
Biodiversity
What are the two processes used by producers to obtain energy?
Chemosynthesis and photosynthesis
What are trophic levels?
The levels of nourishment in a food chain.
Most of the Phosphorus cycle happens at or below _______?
Ground level
_____ energy is lost as the food chain goes on.
More
detritivores
organisms that eat detritus, or dead organic matter.
What are the 5 different levels of organization used by ecologists?
Organism, Population, Community, Ecosystem, Biome
What is a keystone species?
A species that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem
Most producers use ____ to make food?
Sunlight
What is a specialist?
a consumer that primarily eats one specific organism or feeds on a very small number of organisms
About 78% of earths atmosphere is made up of?
Nitrogen gas
The unit of measurement used to describe the amount of energy at each trophic level in an energy pyramid is?
The kilocalorie (kcal)
Biogeochemical cycle
the movement of a particular chemical through the biological and geological, or living and nonliving, parts of an ecosystem.
What is radio telemetry?
Animal is fit with a radio collar that emits a signal used to track the animal's movement.
How would the removal of a keystone species affect an ecosystem’s biodiversity?
It would decrease the biodiversity in the ecosystem.
In chemosynthesis, what is released as a waste product?
Sulfuric acid
What is a food web
A model that shows the complex network of feeding relationships and the flow of energy within and sometimes beyond an ecosystem.
What are carbon sinks?
Areas that store carbon over a long period of time
How does an energy pyramid help to describe energy flow in a food web?
The pyramid illustrates how available energy is distributed among trophic levels in an ecosystem.
Chemosynthesis
the process by which an organism forms carbohydrates using chemicals,rather than light, as an energy source.
What is quadrant sampling?
Rectangular frames are randomly placed the the study site to monitor plant populations
What happens to energy as it flows through a food web?
At each link in a food web, some energy is stored within an organism, and some energy is dissipated into the environment.
How does the hydrologic cycle move water through the environment?
1. Falls to the ground the precipitation
2. Seeps into the ground or forms puddles
3. Flows back into the ocean or evaporates
What is the difference between biomass pyramid and a pyramid of numbers?
A pyramid of numbers shows the numbers of individual organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem
A biomass pyramid compares the biomass of different trophic levels