U1L2: Species Interactions
Name one of the five major types of species interactions.
Predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, competition
This term refers to all the individuals of a single species living in a specific area at the same time.
A population
his foundational group of organisms (like plants or phytoplankton) always forms the base of a trophic pyramid
Producers
In the Antarctic case study, this specific penguin population declined by over 80–90% while other penguin species increased.
Adelie Penguins
Which alternative-pop artist released the massive 2019 global hit single "bad guy" and swept the major Grammy categories?
Billie Eilish
A barnacle attaches to a whale to travel through the ocean, getting a free ride. The whale is not harmed or helped. What type of species interaction is this?
Commensalism
his term describes the maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can support over time.
Carrying Capacity
According to the mathematical model of energy transfer, this percentage of energy entering a trophic level is stored and available for the next level.
10%
In the Yellowstone case study, introducing this predator led to an indirect increase in the beaver population.
Grey Wolves
This slang word is used to describe something fake, suspicious, or untrustworthy, originally popularized by the game Among Us.
Sus
When two or more organisms struggle over the same limited resources (like food, space, or mates), both populations are negatively affected by this interaction.
Competition
What is an abiotic factor and a biotic factor (not predation) that can limit a population's carrying capacity?
These organisms return nutrients and matter from dead organic material back to the base of the food web through the soil.
Decomposers
Explain the ecological mechanism behind the wolf-beaver connection: how did wolves eating elk end up helping beavers?
Wolves reduced/altered elk populations, preventing overgrazing of vegetation/willows, which restored plant growth and provided beavers with food and building materials.
In the sensational South Korean dystopian Netflix thriller Squid Game, what is the name of the very first childhood game the contestants play that turns deadly?
Red light, green light
Which statement best describes the relationship between species A and B?
D. Species A is the prey of Species B.
What is the carrying capacity of the lynx?
35,000
Calculate the specific amount of energy stored at the tertiary consumer level if primary producers in an ecosystem trap 50,000 kcal of solar energy, and state where the remaining energy went based on the Law of Conservation of Energy.
What is 500 kj stored at the tertiary level. The remaining 49,500 kj was given off as heat or waste through metabolic/cellular processes or passed to decomposers.
Explain why loss of sea ice negatively impacts organisms across the entire Antarctic food web, starting with primary producers.
Less sea ice reduces primary producers (plankton/algae), decreasing krill populations, which disrupts energy flow to fish, penguins
The name of the fictional small town in Indiana where the supernatural horrors and Upside Down experiments begin in Stranger Things
Hawkins
Contrast the population impacts of predation versus competition on both participating species (increase? decrease? stay the same?), what is the main difference between the impact of these relationships on the participating species?
In competition both species are decreased over time however in predation the predator population experiences an increase while the prey population experiences a decrease.
Explain how the grey wolves being introduced led to an increase in the beaver population using the word trophic cascade.
When the wolves were introduced, they preyed on the elk population leading to a decline in elk. This caused the browsing to decline as well. This set off a trophic cascade, which resulted in an increase in the height of trees and an increase in beaver population who eat the trees.
Feral hogs are an invasive species causing major problems in the Great Smoky Mountains. They are omnivores that eat huge amounts of vegetation, including wild grass, and also eat small animals like grasshoppers.
Let’s say that typically the energy from the wild grass in the trophic pyramid is 15,000 kcal. How will the energy available from wild grass change mathematically for the ecosystem if the feral hog population consumes 40% of them? How will this affect the rest of the species in the ecosystem?
There will now be only 9,000 kcal left at the base of the trophic pyramid. This will reduce the amount of energy at each level, which will lead to a decline in the population sizes of the species at higher trophic levels due to a reduction in food availability and increased competition.
Why did the Gentoo penguin population increase while the Adelie population declined?
They had a wider variety of food sources available and the open water made it easier to locate their prey resources.
Which movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024?
Oppenheimer