Energy Flow
What happens to the amount of energy as it moves from primary producers to tertiary consumers (3rd level consumers)?
What is the energy decreases.
What do all interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem make up?
What is a food web
Arrange from least to most inclusive: biome, community, ecosystem, population
What is Population, Community, Ecosystem, Biome
What is the maximum number of individuals an environment can support called?
Carrying Capacity
What type of factor is pond water or rain?
abiotic
What percent of energy typically transfers from one trophic level to the next?
What is 10%
Each step in a food chain or food web is called
a trophic level
In an ecosystem, what kind of factors are fish, water lilies, algae?
Biotic factors
What stops exponential population growth and sets the carrying capacity?
Limiting Factors
How long are food chains?
It varies with each ecosystem. (Usually no more then 10)
What is the name of the pyramid that compares energy used by each trophic level?
What is an energy pyramid
A bird kills and eats an insect. What ecological terms describe the bird?
What is Omnivore, Heterotroph
Which density dependent factor affects both predator and prey?
The predator-prey relationship or competition.
What is an organism called that cannot make its own food?
heterotroph
The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level is called the
Biomass
What are the two categories of autotrophs?
Those that photosynthesis and perform chemosynthesis. Those that get their energy source from sun or chemicals.
What is valid food chain model with three trophic levels?
Producer - Primary Consumer - Secondary Consumer - Tertiary.
Ecologists use trophic level models to study what?
Flow of energy
What are three density independent factors?
Drought, wildfire, tornado, hurricanes, floods...most natural disasters.
Organisms that break down organic matter and return it to the environment are called
decomposers
How are the movements of energy and nutrients (matter) through living systems are different?
If 10,000 units of energy are available at the producer level, what is the TOTAL number of energy units LOST when it reaches the Tertiary Consumer (or secondary consumer)
What is 9990 units for teritary consumer
The type of organism that ingests decomposing matter (especially plant matter)
detritovore
A population of mountain lions lives in an small alpine forest. The mountain lions hunt deer, rabbits, and other prey. As the population (mountain lions) increases, what events become more likely to occur?
competition may slow birth rates and increase death rates because the number of primary consumers will decrease.
Populations can exponentially grow until a _____ ____ interrupts the growth rate until it reaches carrying capacity.
a limiting factor