Ecology Basics
This branch of biology studies interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.
What is ecology?
This is the main source of energy for life on Earth.
What is sunlight?
Water moves from bodies of water into the atmosphere during this process.
What is evaporation?
This term describes the area where an organism lives.
What is a habitat?
This population characteristic is measured as the number of individuals per unit area.
What is population density?
This is the build-up of toxic chemicals such as DDT or PCBs through a food chain.
What is biomagnification?
This level of organization includes the living and nonliving parts of an area.
What is an ecosystem?
These organisms use energy from the environment to make organic molecules and are also called autotrophs.
What are producers?
Water moves from plants into the atmosphere during this process.
What is transpiration?
This term describes the physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives—essentially how it lives.
What is a niche?
This occurs when individuals enter a population.
What is immigration?
Fertilizer runoff can trigger algal blooms and this process, which can create hypoxic dead zones.
What is eutrophication?
Living or once-living parts of an ecosystem are called this, while nonliving parts are called this.
What are biotic factors and abiotic factors?
This trophic level obtains food by eating producers and is also known as a herbivore.
What is a primary consumer?
This biological process takes carbon dioxide out of the air.
What is photosynthesis?
In this type of symbiosis, both species benefit from the relationship.
What is mutualism?
This J-shaped pattern occurs when a population reproduces at a constant rate with unlimited resources and no predators.
What is exponential growth?
This is an organism moved to a new habitat that may cause native species extinction, usually because of human transport.
What is an invasive species?
This large ecological area is characterized by its vegetation, soil, climate, and wildlife.
What is a biome?
If producers contain 100 units of energy, the 10% rule predicts that this many units reach tertiary consumers.
What is 0.1 unit of energy?
Bacteria or lightning convert atmospheric Nâ‚‚ into biologically usable ammonia during this process.
What is nitrogen fixation?
This type of succession begins where no soil existed; lichens may serve as pioneer species.
What is primary succession?
This growth pattern slows after exponential growth and levels near the maximum number the environment can support. Name both the pattern and the maximum.
What are logistic growth and carrying capacity?
Cutting or burning forests is this specific action, which can cause the broader problem of a habitat no longer supporting native species.
What are deforestation and habitat destruction?
One term means individuals that can interbreed and produce viable offspring; the other means a group of that same kind living in one area.
What are a species and a population?
One is a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten; the other shows complex feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
What are a food chain and a food web?
Soil bacteria convert ammonia first into nitrites and then into nitrates during this process.
What is nitrification?
This principle occurs when one species outcompetes another and eliminates the weaker species from a shared habitat.
What is the competitive exclusion principle?
Competition and disease are this type of limiting factor, while natural disasters and human disturbances are this other type.
What are density-dependent and density-independent factors?
This approach uses natural resources without depleting them and meets human needs without causing long-term environmental harm.
What is sustainable development?