Principles of Ecology
Define an ecosystem
What is an interaction of biotic & abiotic components.
What is the cycle that involves precipitation?
The water cycle
A group of interacting populations that occupy the same area at the same time.
What is a community?
The term immigration means...
What is an organism moving INTO an ecosystem to increase the population.
Give an example of a primary consumer
What is any herbivore
A model that shows how energy and matter pass through an ecosystem
What is a food web?
In the water cycle, what is it called when water is moved from a body of water to the atmosphere?
What is evaporation?
A treeless biome with a layer of permafrost below the surface of soil.
What is a tundra?
When the population has a sudden increase it is called
What is exponential growth?
What happens when the birth rate and death rate are equal?
What is a stable population, it would not increase or decrease?
To be a biotic factor you have to be
What is living!
What gas is released when fossil fuels are burned?
Carbon dioxide
List 3 abiotic factors that could impact an ecosystem.
What are
- Temperature
- Space
- Precipitation
- Soil
The term for the maximum population size of a species that can be supported by an ecosystem.
What is carrying capacity?
What are two events that can reduce the size of a population?
Death & Emigration
Define the 4 different species interactions mentioned in class.
What are:
- Mutualism: both animals benefit
- Commensalism: one animal benefits the other in unaffected
- Parasitism: one animal benefits the other is affected
- Competition: species complete for similar resources
During the nitrogen cycle, what converts nitrogen gas to nitrates used in the soil?
What is Nitrogen fixing bacteria or lightning?
The difference between primary and secondary succession?
What is primary happens where no life has existed before; secondary happens after a disturbance that disrupts a community?
List all 4 factors that can change the size of a population.
Birth rate, death rate, immigration, emigration
Make a 4 level food chain. (arrows and animals)
Answers may vary
How many units of energy would be available at the primary consumer level, if the tertiary has 30 units?
What is 3000?
In the oxygen & carbon cycle, what is the process that removes CO2 from the atmosphere?
Photosynthesis
Factor leading to an increase in species dying (becoming extinct)?
What is human impact?
Define density dependent vs density independent factors.
What are:
- dependent: vary on population size it could be competition or food scarcity
- independent: has no correlation to populations size it could be natural disasters
The importance behind geochemical cycles.
What is to recycle nutrients needed to support living organisms in the ecosystem?