Ecology
Producers and Consumers
Energy Flow
Water and Carbon Cycles
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles
100
This term refers to all the parts of Earth where life exists.
What is the biosphere?
100
This is why primary producers are so important to an ecosystem.
What is significant about primary producers being the first organisms to capture energy from the sun and other sources in chemical that other organisms can use?
100
This pyramid shows the relative number of organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
What is the pyramid of numbers?
100
This is why the flow of matter is called a cycle.
How is matter recycled over and over again?
100
This main nutrient is found in DNA and RNA, and is part of every amino acid used to make proteins in our bodies.
What is nitrogen?
200
These are three biotic factors in an ecosystem.
What are trees, caterpillars, and bacteria (or any other living thing in an ecosystem)?
200
This is the original source of all energy in an ecosystem.
What is the sun?
200
This is how energy flows through ecosystems.
Why does energy flow from primary producers to primary consumers to secondary consumers to scavengers, decomposers, and detritivores?
200
These are two ways that water can move into the atmosphere.
What are evaporation and transpiration?
200
These kinds of nutrients, like calcium, iron, and magnesium, are only needed in small amounts for an ecosystem to be productive.
What are micronutrients?
300
Rocks, precipitation, temperature, and wind are all examples of this type of factor.
What are abiotic factors?
300
These are two processes that allow primary producers to capture energy.
What are photosynthesis and chemosynthesis.
300
This is an explanation of the pyramid of biomass.
What is a pyramid that shows the biomass, or amount of living matter, at each trophic level of an ecosystem.
300
These are two ways carbon can be added to the atmosphere.
What are the burning of fossil fuels, respiration, and geological activity?
300
Nitrogen makes up 70% of our atmosphere, but it is not in a form that most organisms can use. This process takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and converts it into organic nitrogen that most organisms can use.
What is nitrogen fixation?
400
This is the definition of ecology.
What is the study of interactions among organisms and between the organisms and their environment?
400
Autotrophs are producers since they make their own food. This type of “troph” gets their energy and nutrients by eating other organisms.
What are heterotrophs?
400
This is the difference between a food chain and a food web.
Why does a food chain shows energy flow from primary producers to one primary consumer, one secondary consumer, and other consumers in a straight line, and a food web shows ALL the primary producers in an ecosystem, all the primary consumers that eat them, all the secondary consumers, and even the scavengers, decomposers, and detritivores in an interconnected web?
400
This is one way carbon can be removed from the atmosphere.
What are photosynthesis and dissolving in the ocean?
400
This is the definition of a limiting nutrient.
What is the nutrient whose supply limits the productivity of an ecosystem?
500
These are three methods that ecologists use to study ecosystems. Explain each method to double your points.
What are observation (taking note of things in an ecosystem), experimentation (testing hypotheses by manipulating parts of a real ecosystem or setting up an artificial ecosystem), and modeling (using computers to predict the future of ecosystems)?
500
These are two kinds of heterotrophs OTHER THAN carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. Explain what they eat to double your points.
What are scavengers (animals that eat dead bodies killed by other predators, like a vulture), decomposers (organisms that break down decaying plant and animal remains into detritus, like mushrooms), and detritivores (organisms that eat detritus, like earthworms).
500
This “rule” describes how much energy is available at each level on the pyramid of energy. Explain it to double your points.
What is the 10 Percent Rule (only 10% of the energy on one level will be available in the next level because the remaining 90% is lost as heat)?
500
These are three types of processes that can move nutrients and matter through an ecosystem. Give an example of each to double your points.
What are biological processes (breathing, breaking down food, photosynthesis), geological processes (movement of the earth, volcanic eruptions, the formation of rocks), chemical and physical processes (water flowing, lightning, formation of clouds), and human activity (burning fossil fuels, manufacturing fertilizers, clearing land)?
500
This is one way that nitrogen and phosphorus can end up in waterways. Explain what happens when there is a sudden influx of nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways, AND how it impacts the local ecosystem to double your points.
What is agricultural runoff? When aquatic ecosystems get too much nitrogen and phosphorus, algae can grow out of control and remove all the oxygen from the water, which makes it impossible for fish to survive in that water.
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