Ecology Basics
Study of ecosystems
What is ecology?
Organisms that synthesize their own energy using sunlight.
What are producers or autotrophs?
Animals that only eat plants.
What are herbivores?
Relationship where both organisms benefit.
What is mutualism?
The two types of adaptations.
What are physical and behavioral?
Factors that restrict the growth, distribution, and abundance of a population within an ecosystem.
What are limiting factors?
A group of organisms that can reproduce with one another and produce fertile offspring.
What is a species?
Organisms that must consume other organisms to obtain energy.
What are consumers or heterotrophs?
Animals that only eat meat.
What are carnivores?
What is parasitism?
When an organism is able to blend into its surroundings.
What is camouflage?
The maximum number of organisms that can be supported by an ecosystem.
What is carrying capacity?
Group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities.
What is a biome?
Organisms that break down organic matter.
What are decomposers?
Animals that eat both plants and animals.
What are omnivores?
Relationship where one organism benefits and the other is unaffected.
What is commensalism?
What is mimicry?
Limiting factor that was seen several times in "The Serengeti Rules." *Hint-sea otters, bass, wild dogs.
What is predation?
All the members of a species inhabiting a given location.
What is a population?
These symbols represent the flow of energy in a food chain or web.
What are arrows?
Without this species, an ecosystem would be dramatically different, or cease to exist altogether.
What is a keystone species?
Competition between two different species.
What is interspecific competition?
Armadillos, snails, cacti, hedgehogs, and porcupines all have this adaptation in common.
What are protective coverings?
Type of growth rate that occurs when resources are unlimited.
What is exponential growth?
All the parts of Earth where life exists.
What is the Biosphere?
The amount of energy that is passed from one level of the energy pyramid to the next.
What is 10%?
The species in "The Serengeti Rules" that decimated the kelp forest due to the absence of sea otters.
What are sea urchins?
Increase in concentration of harmful substances in the higher levels of a food chain.
What is biomagnification?
When animals move from one place to another due to seasonal changes or following food/water sources.
What is migration?
Type of growth rate that initially grows rapidly, but slows as it approaches carrying capacity.
What is logistic growth?