What is the process through which plants lose water?
Transpiration
Describe the experimental and control groups in this experiment.
Experimental group - exposed to light
Control group - group left in the dark
What do we lose as we go up the trophic pyramid? How?
Energy in the form of heat.
Ecological niche
Which direction do arrows point in a food web?
In the direction of energy transfer (from prey to predator)
What is the function of a flower?
The flower is the reproductive part of a plant.
What was the hypothesis for this experiment?
If exposed to light, the number of leaf discs that are floating will increase because photosynthesis will occur.
What is at the bottom of a trophic pyramid?
Producers/Autotrophs
What is an invasive species?
A species that is not native to an environment and harms the ecosystem
What is co-evolution?
A process where two or more species influence each other's evolution through their close, long-term interactions (such as between a predator and prey).
What are stomata?
Stomata are pores in the leaves that allow gas exchange.
Write the reaction for photosynthesis in words.
water + carbon dioxide (+light) -> sugar + oxygen
List 2 human activities that have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural practices
What is a decomposer?
The type of organism that breaks down other dead organisms to recycle its nutrients.
A name for the type of organism that eats autotrophs/producers for energy
Primary consumer or Herbivore
Where does photosynthesis occur?
Chloroplasts in the leaves.
Which trophic level has the largest population? Which has the smallest?
Largest - producers (bottom of the pyramid)
Smallest - consumers at the top
Define autotroph and heterotroph.
Autotroph - an organism that can make its own energy from sunlight.
Heterotroph - an organism that gets its energy from consuming other organisms.
What are the types of symbiotic relationships? Provide an example for each.
parasitism (dogs and fleas), mutualism (pollinators and flowers), commensalism (barnacles on whales)
Describe the vascular system of a plant and its function.
Xylem - transports water and minerals from root to rest of the plant
Phloem - transports sugars (made through photosynthesis) from leaves to rest of the plant
How do we get the leaf discs to sink in the solution and why do they float during the experiment?
We take the air out of the spongy mesophyll layer of the leaf by creating a vacuum. The leaf discs float again when photosynthesis occurs and oxygen is produced.
If the producer in this pyramid has 4200 kJ of energy, how much energy would the secondary consumer get?
42 kJ
Define keystone species and the different types of keystone species.
A species that has a large impact on its ecosystem.
The different types are: keystone predators, ecosystem engineers, keystone mutualists and foundation species
Describe the trend in predator and prey population we see in this graph. Why do we see this trend?
When prey are abundant, the predator population can grow, leading to a subsequent decline in prey numbers due to increased hunting. A scarcity of prey then causes the predator population to shrink, which in turn allows the prey population to recover and begin the cycle again.