Ecology 101
A(n) ____ collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food.
autotroph
How do ecologists benefit from creating models?
Variables can be more easily controlled.
The exchange of matter through the ____ is called the biogeochemical cycle.
biosphere
How can detritivores be beneficial to the environment?
rid waste and dead matter
How would a population decrease in primary consumers affect the ecosystem?
Third-level consumer populations would eventually decrease.
The total mass of living matter at each trophic level is called ____.
biomass
How is carbon released from calcium carbonate?
by a process of erosion
This graph shows that the growth of ____ is decreased by higher temperature.
colpidium
Tree branches are an example of a ____.
a habitat
What factor often limits the growth of producers?
phosphorus
This picture shows how carbon cycles through the environment. What can be said about this picture?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is released by respiration.
What does a decrease in salmon population due to an increase in river temperature indicate?
an abiotic factor affecting a biotic factor
What process involves the capture and conversion of nitrogen into a form useable by plants?
nitrogen fixation
What significant function can parasitism have in the ecosystem?
population decrease of an overabundant species
What is being shown based on the food chain shown here?
Energy from photosynthesis will transfer to snake.