Levels of Organization
What do we call a single living thing like a deer or tree?
Organism
Relationship where both organisms benefit.
Mutualism
Which cycle involves water evaporating, condensing, and precipitating?
Water Cycle
What is the main source of energy for life on Earth?
Sunlight
In a rainforest, fungi that break down waste are called _______.
Decomposers
Which level includes only members of one species living together?
Population
A tapeworm living in a human is an example of ________.
Parasitism
Plants take in carbon dioxide and make sugars during what process?
Photosynthesis
Which organisms are always at the bottom of an energy pyramid?
Producers / autotrophs
If the grasshopper population decreases, what happens to insect-eating bird populations?
They decrease too
Which level of organization is the first to include abiotic factors?
Ecosystem
Define commensalism and give one example.
One benefits, the other unaffected – e.g., barnacles on whales
Which cycle does NOT cycle through the atmosphere?
Phosphorus Cycle
What happens to available energy as you move up the pyramid?
Decreases → 90% lost as heat at each level
Which trophic level in a biomass pyramid has the most mass?
Producers
Put these in order from smallest to largest: community, organism, population, biosphere, ecosystem.
Organism → Population → Community → Ecosystem → Biosphere
Which type of interaction occurs when two species compete for the same food source?
Competition
What process in the nitrogen cycle returns nitrogen gas to the atmosphere?
Denitrification
A bear eats a seal that ate a fish that ate algae. What level is the bear in this chain?
Tertiary consumer
What would most likely happen if grasses and shrubs disappeared from a Georgia ecosystem?
Decrease in energy flow → consumers decline
A scientist is studying how climate change affects penguins and krill in Antarctica. What level of organization is being studied, and why?
Ecosystem → because it involves living and nonliving factors
Explain how the clownfish and sea anemone relationship shows mutualism and why it is NOT commensalism.
Both benefit: clownfish get protection, anemone gets protection from predators
Explain how burning fossil fuels changes the carbon cycle and impacts ecosystems.
Adds excess CO₂ → climate change, ocean acidification, etc.
Explain why tertiary consumers like hawks or bears have the least available energy.
Energy is lost at each level, so less is passed on to higher levels
A food chain is: Grass → Grasshopper → Gecko → Owl.
Identify producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer.
Grass → Producer, Grasshopper → Primary, Gecko → Secondary, Owl → Tertiary