Vocab
This term refers the loss of water from the leaf tissue of plants
What is transpiration?
Humans have this many total chromosomes
What is 46?
This refers to the process of converting solid nitrogen into gaseous nitrogen
What is denitrification?
These organisms are able to fix nitrogen
What are bacteria?
How many species are in a population?
What is 'one?'
This refers to using or harvesting too much of a species or a population, which can lead to decreased levels of biodiversity
What is overexploitation? (overhunting, overfishing, cutting too many trees, etc)?'
This is the definition of 'ecosystem services'
What are 'goods and services that humans get from nature free of charge?'
What is 1) to build DNA molecules and 2) to build proteins?
Biomes are usually classified based on this:
What are 'plant communities (which are determined by climate, weather, and latitude)?'
This is the spatial distribution of elephant populations
What is 'clumped or clustered?'
List three parts of the abiotic environment AND explain how living things interact with them
What are 1) sunlight (warms the earth, provides energy for producers), 2) water (necessary for all life, also necessary for photosynthesis), 3) soil (contains nutrients to grow all the food), 4) rocks (eventually break down into essential minerals and elements that are used by living organisms)?
Briefly define the process of nitrogen fixation
What is 'this occurs when certain bacteria convert gaseous, inorganic nitrogen into a solid, accessible form of nitrogen that can be absorbed by plants and other organisms?'
This is measured by simply counting the total number of species within habitat, community, or ecosystem
What is biodiversity?
These are the three types of symbiosis discussed in class
What is 1) mutualism, 2) commensalism, and 3) parasitism?
This is why all matter on planet earth is locked into some sort of cycle
What is 'because earth is a closed system; nothing gets out and only light energy is able to enter earth's atmosphere?'
This is the difference between 'climate' and 'weather'
What is 'weather measures short-term trends in days, weeks, and months; climate refers to long-term trends like decades, centuries, and millennia?'
What is 'INTERspecific competition is competition between different species; INTRAspecific competition is competition between organisms of the same species?'
These are the three types of pollution discussed in class and an example of each
What is 1) chemical pollution (oil spills, chemical spills, burning fossil fuels), 2) physical pollution (trash, especially plastic), and 3) energetic pollution (sound and noise pollution)?
List two major zones used to categorize the open ocean
What are 1) the photic and 2) the aphotic zones?
True or false: a species can be declared extinct even if some members of the population are still alive in captivity
What is 'true?'
In your own words, give two reasons why exotic/invasive species threaten biodiversity
What is '1) because the organisms have no natural predator in their new ecosystem and 2) they outcompete the native species and can cause their populations to collapse?'
Briefly explain what two major things occur as we move up the energy pyramid
What is '1) we lose 90% of each energy at each trophic level and 2) populations sizes become smaller as we move up the hierarchy?'
All biomes on earth can be divided into one of two categories; give an example of each
What are 1) terrestrial or aquatic and 2) savanna, prairie, tundra, tropical rainforest, desert (terrestrial biomes); coral reefs, open ocean, photic zone, aphotic zone, swamps, rivers, lakes (aquatic biomes)?
These are five examples of ecosystem services
What are: food, oxygen, water, cultural value, recreation, textiles, building materials, water filtration, flood control, erosion control, storm surge buffer, medicines/pharmaceuticals, light, heat?'
These are two examples of habitat destruction and two examples of exotic/invasive species
What are 1) deforestation, clearcutting for agriculture, developing residential or commercial areas, draining swamps/wetlands, pollution and 2) kudzu, fire ants, poison ivy, goldfish, etc?