Food Webs
This term describes an organism that makes its own food, usually through photosynthesis.
What is a producer?
Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals that this can support in an ecosystem.
What is the environment or habitat?
Biomagnification is the increase of these substances as they move up the food chain.
What are toxins or pollutants?
A relationship in which both species benefit is called this.
What is mutualism?
Plants take in this gas during photosynthesis, playing a key role in the carbon cycle.
What is carbon dioxide?
A hawk eats a snake, which ate a frog, which ate an insect. The hawk is this level of consumer.
What is a tertiary consumer?
This type of limiting factor, like food or water, depends on population size.
What is a density-dependent factor?
This heavy metal, found in some seafood, is a common example of biomagnification.
What is mercury?
A tick feeding on a dog is an example of this relationship.
What is parasitism?
The process of converting nitrogen gas into ammonia for plants is called this.
What is nitrogen fixation?
This type of organism breaks down dead matter and recycles nutrients into the ecosystem.
What is a decomposer?
Natural disasters and climate conditions are examples of these limiting factors.
What are density-independent factors?
This chemical is used widely in agriculture, caused bird eggshells to weaken due to biomagnification.
What is pesticides/DDT?
Barnacles on a whale benefit while the whale is unaffected. This relationship is known as this.
What is commensalism?
In the water cycle, water returns to the atmosphere through these two processes.
What are evaporation and transpiration?
The interconnected relationships between multiple food chains in an ecosystem form this.
What is a food web?
The graph of a growth pattern that occurs when a population has plenty of resources and space and is allowed to reproduce freely.
What is exponential growth?
The highest concentration of a pollutant due to biomagnification occurs at this level of the food chain.
What is the top predator or apex predator?
Competition occurs when organisms fight over these limited resources.
What are food, water, shelter, or space?
Decomposers help return nutrients to the soil in this step of the nutrient cycle.
What is decomposition?
If a keystone species is removed from a food web, this major effect can occur.
What is ecosystem collapse or a drastic population imbalance?
The graph term for a growth pattern that levels off at carrying capacity.
What is an logistic growth?
This process describes how pollutants enter organisms in the first place.
What is bioaccumulation/biomagnification?
This term describes a close, long-term interaction between two different species, which can be mutualistic, parasitic, or commensalistic.
What is symbiosis?
This group of organisms plays a crucial role in breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem.
What are decomposers?