The Biosphere
What is the term for the process by which carbon moves from the atmosphere into organisms and back into the atmosphere?
Carbon cycle
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain follows a single path of energy and nutrients, while a food web consists of interconnected food chains.
What factors influence a population's size?
Birth rate, death rate, immigration, and emigration
A group of interacting populations of different species living in the same area.
Community
What is one major way in which human activities contribute to global warming?
The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect.
Name an abiotic factor that influences the biosphere.
Rainfall, temperature, sunlight are examples.
Name one example of a terrestrial ecosystem.
Forest, grassland, desert, tundra are examples.
The number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume.
The process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time.
Ecological Succession
The term for increasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web
biomagnification
What is the primary source of energy for most ecosystems?
Sunlight
The role and position a species has in its environment; how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces.
What is a niche?
The maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can support indefinitely.
Carrying Capacity
The variety of life forms on Earth, including species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity.
Biodiversity
What is the term for the study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions with the environment?
Ecology
What is the term for the process by which water evaporates from the leaves of plants?
Transpiration
What is the primary difference between a producer and a consumer in an ecosystem?
Producers (autotrophs) produce their own food through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis, while consumers (heterotrophs) obtain energy by consuming other organisms.
Name and define one type of population dispersion pattern.
Clumped (individuals are clustered together), Uniform (individuals are evenly spaced), Random (individuals are spaced unpredictably).
A species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance.
Keystone Species
The total amount of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, emitted directly or indirectly by an individual, organization, product, or activity.
Ecological Footprint or Carbon Footprint
What is the primary function of decomposers in the Biosphere?
To break down dead organic matter and recycle nutrients
The ability of an ecosystem to resist or recover from disturbances
Resilience
What factors contribute to exponential population growth?
High birth rate, low death rate, abundant resources, absence of predation or disease
Name and define the three types of symbiotic relationships.
Mutualism (both species benefit), Commensalism (one species benefits, the other is neither helped nor harmed), Parasitism (one species benefits, the other is harmed).
Name three impacts of deforestation
Deforestation can lead to changes in local climates, including altered rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and reduced humidity, loss of habitat and the transfer of zoonotic diseases.