Ecosystems
What is an ecosystem?
All of the biotic/living and abiotic/non-living parts in an area that interact with one another.
What is a habitat?
The place an organism lives that provides food, shelter, and the other essential resources for survival (such as water, right temperature, open space, etc.)
The type of ecological relationship when one organism eats/consumes another.
predation
Where do plants get their energy?
The Sun
A diagram that shows the flow of energy and matter through a community.
A food chain/food web/energy pyramid
What part of the ecosystem are rocks, soil, water, and sunlight?
The abiotic/nonliving parts in an environment.
What is a community?
All of the living/biotic parts of an ecosystem.
What type of symbiotic relationship is it when one organism benefits and the other is not effected (not helped or harmed)?
commensalism
A carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore are all examples of a consumer. What is a consumer?
an organism that eats other organisms for energy and matter
Why is a producer important to a food chain/web?
Producers are the source of all the food energy in a food web.
Energy flows through a food chain. What percentage of the energy in one level can be used by the organisms in the level above it?
Only 10% of the energy in one level is available for the organisms in the next level.
What would the effect be on the desert community if the desert tortoises only produced half as many offspring?
prickly pear --> tortoises --> roadrunners --> hawks
prickly pear --> bats --> hawks
more prickly pear, less roadrunners (less prey)
more prickly pear, more bats
hawk population stays the same ... eat more bats
Name an example of mutualism (a type of symbiotic relationships) and explain why it is mutualism.
clownfish and anemone (both benefit)
hermit crab and anemone
hermit crab and bristle worm
egret and herbivore
acacia ant and acacia tree
How are decomposers important?
Breaks down organic waste and dead stuff
Put nutrients/matter back into the ecosystem and the producers use those nutrients/matter
Recycle nutrients/matter!!!
What is an apex (or top) predator?
An apex or top predator hunts and kills their prey to get energy/matter AND does not have any natural predators (not prey).
Matter cycles through an ecosystem. If an atom of nitrogen starts in a producers body describe how it cycles through the ecosystem.
Producer --> primary consumer --> secondary consumer --> etc. --> decomposer --> (to the environment) --> Producer
--> matter going from one organism/part to another
Effect of more sea anemones given the symbiotic relationships (clownfish and anemone) ... over a few generations
More anemones = more clownfish (more "shelter"). More anemones = less anemone prey decrease less prey = less anemones = less clownfish
everything back to balance (populations are at carrying capacity)
There are two types of competition for limited resources (food, water, shelter, etc.). What are they?
within the same species
between different species
Biomass is the biggest amount at which level of the Food Web? the least?
Biggest amount of biomass = Producers
Least = Top/Apex Predators
90% of the energy in one level of the energy pyramid can't "move up" to the next level. What happens to this energy?
This energy is used to maintain homeostasis, to move, to repair, to grow, for the cells to respirate, etc.
What happens to a pond (Gizmo's pond) when you add farm animal waste to it. Mention both abiotic and biotic factors.
Abiotic factors: oxygen levels decrease
Biotic factors: catfish increase, trout decrease
challenge (decomposers increase)
What is a parasite? Explain what a parasitic symbiotic relationship is.
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in another organism and feeds on it while it is still living.
one organism benefits (the parasite) and the other organism is harmed (the host).
What can change a food web? How?
Changes in abiotic and biotic factors ... The weather can affect a food web by damaging and destroying plants. People can affect a food web by spraying pesticides, dumping waste into oceans and rivers, overfishing, and deforestation.