Terms for Ecosystems
Food Chains
Interactions Among Species
Numbers (100-300 only)
Potpourri
100
A non-biological factor that plays a role in an organism's environment; non-living environmental factors. e.g. A forest fire. e.g. Water
What is an abiotic factor?
100
An animal that feeds on flesh. e.g. A shark.
What is a carnivore?
100
A symbiotic relationship in which each of the organisms benefits. e.g. sea anemone and clown fish
What is mutualism?
100
Baking soda has a pH value of 9.5, suggesting that this substance is ________________.
What is slightly basic?
100
A type of food pyramid that is based on the numbers of organisms at each trophic level.
What is a pyramid of numbers?
200
A major regional or global biotic community characterized chiefly by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate. e.g. a tundra e.g. a desert
What is a biome?
200
An animal that feeds on plants.
What is a herbivore?
200
An association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm. e.g. Vorticellids are often found attached to the body of the shark.
What is commensalism?
200
The average percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next in most food chains while the rest is lost to bodily functions.
What is 10%?
200
Occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost. e.g. DDT e.g. Mercury
What is bioaccumulation?
300
The regions of the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms.
What is the biosphere?
300
A biological interaction where a predator (an organism that is hunting) feeds on its prey (the organism that is attacked).
What is predation?
300
A non-mutual symbiotic relationship between species, where one species benefits at the expense of the other, the host. e.g. mosquitoes
What is parasitism?
300
Soil bacteria that convert ammonia into nitrites and nitrates.
What are nitrifying bacteria?
300
This measures how quickly oxygen is used up by microorganisms in the water.
What is biological oxygen demand? (B.O.D.)
400
An assemblage or associations of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area and in a particular time.
What is a community?
400
Each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.
What is a trophic level?
400
A point or period in time in which the state of an ecological system is at climax, wherein it ceases to grow.
What is equilibrium or steady state?
400
*Note: Answer is not a number* Excessive richness of nutrients, such as nitrogen, in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.
What is eutrophication?
400
This type of conservation is a strategy used to protect endangered species by keeping them in their natural surroundings
What is in-situ?
500
The use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced microorganisms or other forms of life to consume and break down environmental pollutants, in order to clean up a polluted site.
What is bioremediation?
500
An autotrophic organisim, usually a photosynthetic green plant in an ecology which synthesizes organic matter from inorganic materials and is an early stage in a food chain.
What is a producer?
500
The control of a pest by the introduction of a natural enemy or predator.
What is biocontrol?
500
*Note: the answer is not a number* An example of abiotic and biotic factors in this biome includes sand and vegetation that needs little water to survive.
What is the desert?
500
glucose + oxygen => carbon dioxide + water + energy
What is cellular respiration?
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