Food Webs and Trophic Levels
What is the difference between a food web and food chain?
A food chain is a single pathway of energy transfer while a food web is a more complex network of interconnected food chains that show how energy is transferred within an ecosystem.
Define carrying capacity
Maximum number of individuals that a population of a species can maintain, determined by environmental conditions. (Limiting factors)
What is the purpose of cellular respiration?
Make ATP
What is the purpose of photosynthesis?
Convert light energy into chemical energy stored in glucose. (serves as food for the plant and other organisms)
Define homeostasis
Homeostasis is the process by which organisms maintain stable internal conditions despite external changes.
Describe the role of producers in a food web
Provide an example of a limiting factor that would impact wolves. (Be specific)
Lack of resources. Low amount of prey for wolves to eat or limited water for wolves to drink.
What are the raw materials needed for cellular respiration?
O2 and glucose (C6H12O6)
Identify the part of a leaf related to gas exchange
Stomata
Provide an example of homeostasis in the human body
Cold Body and Muscles Shivering, Exercise CO2 buildup and increased respiration in Lungs, High glucose in blood and insulin regulating glucose levels, etc.
How do decomposers differ from consumers?
Decomposers get energy by breaking down decaying organisms, recycling nutrients.
Consumers eat living or once living organisms for energy
The graph of a population without carrying capacity would look like
A J-Curve
How does the digestive system contribute to cellular respiration?
Digestive system breaks down food through mechanical and chemical digestion. Once it reaches the small intestine, the macromolecules needed for cellular respiration are absorbed and sent to the cell.
What are the raw materials needed for photosynthesis to occur? (the reactants of photosynthesis reaction)
Light, H2O and CO2
What is a buffer? How does it help maintain a stable pH?
A buffer is a solution that resists changes in pH when small amounts of acid or base are added. (In the human body, buffers are critical for maintaining the pH of blood around 7.4.)
Explain how energy flows from the bottom to the top of the trophic pyramid. (List the trophic levels in proper order from bottom-top)
Producers collect energy, primary consumers eat producers for energy, secondary consumers eat primary consumers or producers, tertiary consumers usually eat primary or secondary consumers for energy.
(Producer--> primary consumer--> secondary consumer--> tertiary consumer)
What is the difference between density-dependent and density-independent factors?
Density-dependent factors are influenced by population size (competition and disease).
Density-independent factors affect populations regardless of size (natural disasters).
What is the purpose of ATP?
ATP is the energy needed to do cellular work
Which part of the leaf is where photosynthesis takes place? (Specifically which organelle)
Chloroplast
Explain how humans contributed to ocean acidification.
Increase of CO2 causes diffusion of CO2 into the ocean. The CO2 becomes an acid (H2CO3) in water which leads releases H+ ions in the ocean. Decreasing the pH of the ocean making it more acidic.
What impact can the removal of a top predator have on the food web?
This can cause a trophic cascade where the primary consumer population has no carrying capacity and grows large enough to eat all of the producers. This eventually leads to no energy being absorbed from the sun for the rest of the ecosystem.
How does the number of individuals of a population change? Provide 2 examples.
Birth rate and immigration, death rate and emigration.
How does aerobic cellular respiration differ from fermentation
Aerobic cellular respiration needs oxygen to work, fermentation is cellular respiration without oxygen.
Which part of photosynthesis requires light? Where does it take place?
Light reactions (Light dependent reactions). This takes place in the thylakoid of the chloroplast.
Explain how ocean acidification impacts marine life
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is needed to take up H+ ions in the water. CaCO3 is also what calcifiers or organisms with a shell need to build a strong and healthy shell. Lack of CaCO3 leads to weaker, smaller marine life and less food for whole ecosystem