Ecological Relationships
One benefits, one is harmed
What is Parasitism?
Organisms that make their own food.
What are producers/autotrophs?
Gas plants take in during photosynthesis.
What is carbon dioxide?
This means I have a wide variety of organisms in the ecosystem.
What is biodiversity?
Organisms that break down dead matter and recycle nutrients.
What are decomposers?
Both organisms benefit
What is mutualism?
The main energy source for ecosystems.
What is the sun?
Nitrogen helps make these biomolecules.
What are proteins and nucleic acids?
Where we get our carbon from.
What are other plants and animals?
Wind turbines are an example of?
What is a renewable resource?
Two species fight for the same resource
What is competition?
Consumer that only eats plants.
What is a herbivore/primary consumer?
Process humans do that returns CO2 to atmosphere.
What is cellular respiration?
What happens to biodiversity when habitats are destroyed?
It decreases.
What is carrying capacity?
The maximum number of individuals that can live in an environment.
Bird eats parasites off mammal. How does this help ecosystem stability?
It helps the mammal stay alive and keeps populations balanced.
What happens if producers decrease in number?
Consumers/heterotrophs will decrease in number as well.
Role of decomposers.
To break down dead organisms and recycle nutrients.
What is one way humans can disrupt the nitrogen cycle?
Excessive use of fertilizer.
Why does high biodiversity make an ecosystem more stable?
It makes it easier to adapt to change (Ex. Fight disease)
If the number of parasites increases, what happens to the hosts and to ecosystem stability?
The number of hosts decreases, and the ecosystem becomes unstable.
Why does energy decrease at higher trophic levels?
Energy is lost as heat and waste.
What will happen if the nitrogen cycle is disrupted.
Plants will stop growing OR Algae blooms and dead zones will appear in the ocean OR The ecosystem will be disrupted
What can happen if there is too much carbon in the oceans?
The oceans become more acidic and begin to harm marine life.
What is biomagnification?
Chemicals and poisons are in higher concentrations the higher up a food chain.