Energy Flow
These two processes provide most of the energy for organisms.
What is photosynthesis and cellular respiration?
This process removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in plants.
What is photosynthesis?
Because their pollination supports many plants and animals, bees are an example of this type of species that has an unusually large impact on its ecosystem.
What is a keystone species?
This simple action by humans, such as cutting down trees, reduces the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.
What is deforestation?
The regrowth of a forest after a fire is an example of this type of succession
What is a secondary succession?
In an energy pyramid, these organisms contain the most available energy, while these organisms contain the least.
What is the producers and the tertiary (or top/apex consumers)?
This process in animals and plants releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
What is cellular respiration?
This term describes the total variety of organisms in the biosphere, including genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
What is biodiversity?
Adding these chemicals to lawns and gardens can wash into waterways, upsetting the balance of ecosystems.
What are fertilizers?
This type of succession begins on bare rock after volcanic eruptions or glacial retreat, when no soil is present.
What is primary succession?
This rule explains why only about certain amount of energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next.
What is the 10% rule?
This element is added to ecosystems through fertilizer and can cause excessive algal growth when it enters water.
What is nitrogen (or phosphorus)?
Biologists studied deer and plant populations for several years. When deer numbers went up, plant numbers went down. This is an example of this type of ecological relationship.
What is a predator-prey (consumer- resource) relationship?
Polar bears are losing their hunting grounds as this human activity continues to melt Arctic sea ice.
What is burning fossil fuel (leading to climate change?)
Desert plants often have narrow leaves and waxy coatings. These adaptations help them survive by reducing this process, where water is lost through leaves.
What is transpiration?
These organisms recycle nutrients back into the soil by breaking down dead matter, making them essential to the energy cycle.
What are decomposers?
When fertilizer runs into ponds, it causes this process, where algae grow rapidly, block sunlight, and reduce oxygen levels.
What is eutrophication (or algal bloom)?
When sandbars were washed away by a hurricane, the number of available habitats decreased. This caused this change in species diversity.
What is a decrease in species diversity?
After a forest fire, the soil remains and new plants begin to grow. This process helps the ecosystem recover over time.
What is secondary succession?
Lichens and mosses are often the first organisms to colonize bare rock after a volcanic eruption. Over time, they break down the rock into soil. This is the beginning stage of this ecological process.
What is primary succession?
In a forest food web, if insects eat plants, frogs eat insects, and snakes eat frogs, the snake is at this trophic level.
What is a tertiary consumer?
A student drew a carbon cycle and forgot to include one major detail: plants taking in this gas during photosynthesis.
What carbon dioxide?
Iguanas, which eat only plants, were introduced into Florida. Their increase threatens this group of organisms, which depend on the same food source.
What are herbivores.
If humans stopped burning and clearing tropical rainforests, this global effect on biodiversity would most likely occur over time.
What is an increase in biodiversity?
When humans introduce a new (non-native) species into an environment, this usually happens to native species that depend on the same resources.
What is increased competition (or a decline in native species)?