Vocabulary
These nonliving parts of an ecosystem include things like sunlight, temperature, and soil that affect which organisms can survive. What are they called?
What is Abiotic factors
Covering about 70% of Earth’s surface, this biome includes coral reefs, open ocean, and the deep sea. It is the largest biome on Earth. What biome is it?
What is Marine
Energy does not cycle like matter does. Instead, it moves through an ecosystem in this one direction — from the sun to producers to consumers. What direction does it flow?
What is One Way
Bees get food from flowers while helping flowers reproduce by spreading pollen. This is an example of what type of symbiosis?
What is Mutualism
In ecosystems, these are natural factors that control population growth, such as limited food, water, or space. What are they called?
What is limiting factors
Plants, algae, and some bacteria use sunlight to make their own food through photosynthesis. What do we call these organisms?
What is Autotrophs (Producers)
This cold biome has frozen soil called permafrost, very short summers, and only hardy plants like mosses and lichens. What biome is it?
What is Tundra
These consumers eat only plants. For example, a rabbit eating grass. What are they called?
What is Herbivores
If the number of prey animals decreases in an ecosystem, what usually happens to the predator population, and why?
What is Predator populations decrease because there is less food available.
Melting ice caps, stronger storms, and shifting animal migration patterns are all examples of impacts from this global problem. What is it?
What is climate change
In this type of relationship, one species benefits while the other is harmed. For example, a tapeworm living in a human. What is it?
What is Parasitism
Found near the equator, this biome is hot and wet year-round and is home to more plant and animal species than any other. What biome is it?
In a food chain, these organisms eat herbivores. For example, a frog that eats a grasshopper. What are they called?
What is Secondary Consumers
In the Lion King, lions hunt zebras on the savanna. What type of interaction is this?
What is Predator-Prey relationship
If a disease spreads through an ecosystem, what might happen to populations and food chains?
What is Populations may decrease, which disrupts predator-prey balance and food chains.
Unlike a food chain, this diagram shows how energy flows through many connected feeding relationships in an ecosystem. What is it called?
What is Food web
Found in Africa and other warm regions, this biome has long dry seasons, scattered trees, and large grazing animals like zebras and elephants. What biome is it?
Why do animals at the top of the food chain have the least available energy? Explain what happens to energy at each trophic level.
What is because energy is lost as heat and through life processes at each level, leaving less available for higher levels.
Prey animals often develop traits to avoid being eaten, such as camouflage, speed, or warning colors. What do we call these survival traits?
What is Adaptations
Large areas of forests, like the Amazon rainforest, are being cut down for farming, logging, and building cities. This reduces biodiversity, destroys habitats, and adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. What is this process called, and how does it impact ecosystems?
What is Deforestation. It leads to habitat loss, decreased biodiversity, disruption of food webs, and contributes to climate change by reducing oxygen production and increasing carbon dioxide.
In ecology, this term describes all the different populations of living things that interact together in the same area (for example: deer, trees, and wolves in a forest). What is it called?
What is Community
This biome forms where freshwater rivers flow into salty oceans. It is one of the most productive ecosystems and is a nursery for many fish species. What biome is it?
What is Estuary
Compare these two energy models: one shows a single path of energy transfer, while the other shows many interconnected feeding relationships. What are they, and how are they different?
What is Food chain = one path; Food web = many interconnected paths.
In one type of symbiosis, both organisms benefit (like bees and flowers). In another type, one benefits while the other is not affected (like barnacles on whales). What are these two types of symbiosis called, and how are they different?
What is Mutualism (both benefit) and Commensalism (one benefits, the other unaffected).
Predict what happens if top predators, such as wolves in a forest, are removed. How does this affect prey populations and the ecosystem?
What is Prey populations increase, overgrazing or overuse of resources occurs, and the ecosystem becomes unbalanced.