Academic Vocabulary
What is the difference between biotic and abiotic?
Biotic are living things; abiotic are non-living things.
A water droplet on a rock gets hot and turns into a gas that floats up into the air. This is an example of ____________.
Evaporation
Which is the hunter--a predator or a prey?
Predator
Name two biotic things in this room.
Answer could be anything LIVING
Describe one way humans can impact an ecosystem.
LOTS of answers--pollution, burining fossil fuels, cutting down trees, removing wolves from an ecosystem, etc......
What is a keystone species?
A species that if you remove them, the whole ecosystem collapses (like the wolves of Yellowstone)
Snow, sleet, rain, and mist are all examples of what stage of the water cycle?
Precipitation
Which is the consumer in this food chain:
Grass------> Deer------->Wolf---->Bacteria
Deer, wolf, or bacteria
Name any two ABIOTIC things in this room.
Answer could be anything NONLIVING
How do rising sea levels affect people who live near the coast?
Their homes and businesses could flood because the water levels are higher.
What is parasitism?
An ecological relationship where one thing is harmed or killed and the other benfits. Examples: a tapeworm inside a dog; a leech on a person's leg; a mosquito sucking blood out of your arm
How is evaporation different from transpiration?
Transpiration happens when water evaporates off of plants.
Which is the producer in this food chain
Grass------> Deer------->Wolf---->Bacteria
Grass
A ____________ is where all the living and non-living things work together.
Ecosystem
What is the differnce between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain shows only one possible movement of energy--the grass gets eaten by the deer who gets eaten by the wolf. A food web shows all the possibilities--the grass gets eaten by the deer OR it gets eaten by the rabbits OR it gets eaten bythe buffalo OR.....
What is deforestation?
Cutting down of trees. This means there are less trees taking in carbon dioxide, making our air more full of it.
The (gas) water vapor in the air joins together to make a cloud. This is an example of ____________.
Condensation
Which is the decomposer in this food chain
Grass------> Deer------->Wolf---->Bacteria
Bacteria
A decomposer is biotic. What does it do to get energy?
Breaks down dead things into parts.
How do fossil fuels affect climate change?
Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas cause the Earth's temperatures to rise.
What are the 5 steps of the water cycle?
In any order--evaporation, condensation, precipitation, run-off, transpiration
When gravity pulls water down a mountain, this is an example of ___________.
Run-off
What is a scavenger?
A consumer that eats the leftover bits of dead animals, like a vulture or a coyote.
A foundation species is a living thing. What is a foundation species?
Something that changes the physical land of an ecosystem--beavers building a dam, ants building an anthill, trees making a forest.
What is a trophic cascade?
When you remove a keystone species and the whole ecosystem collapses because of it, ;ike when the wolves were removed from Yellowstone.