Ecosystems
What is an ecosystem?
A community of living organisms and their environment.
What is a food chain?
A sequence showing how energy is transferred by eating.
What does competition mean in Biology?
When organisms try to get the same limited resources
What does biodiversity mean?
The variety of different species in an area
What is sampling?
Studying a small part to represent the whole area.
A non-living part of the ecosystem.
What is the producer in a food chain?
A plant / something that makes its own food.
Name one thing animals compete for.
Food, Water, Mates, Territory.
Is a rainforest high or low in biodiversity?
High.
Why do scientists use sampling instead of counting everything?
It saves time.
What does a 'biotic' factor mean?
A living part of the ecosystem.
What do the arrows in a food chain show?
The direction of energy transfer.
Name one thing plants compete for.
Light, Water, Space, Minerals.
Name one reason biodiversity is important.
It helps ecosystems stay stable/healthy.
Name one piece of equipment used for sampling plants.
Quadrat or Transect.
For photosynthesis.
How is a food web different from a food chain?
In the food chain grass → rabbit → fox, what happens to the rabbits if the grass decreases?
Rabbit numbers decrease.
What types of human activity can reduce biodiversity?
Habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, or deforestation.
How does repeating samples make results more reliable?
It reduces the effect of anomalies.
Give an example of a living (biotic) and a non-living (abiotic) factor of an ecosystem.
Living: Plants, Animals, Predators, Prey etc.
Non-living: Light, Temperature, Water, Wind, pH
Grass --> Cow --> Human
In the food chain grass → rabbit → fox, what happens to the foxes if rabbit numbers decrease?
Fox numbers decrease because there is less food.
If bees disappear from an area, what might happen to flowering plants?
Fewer plants would reproduce because there is less pollination.
If you only place quadrats where there are lots of daisies, how will this affect your results?
Results are biased, not representative of the whole area. Answer would be too high.