Food Webs/Chains
Food chains are a series of organisms (4-5) that eat each other, whereas the food web is more complex because it outlines the relationships between different organisms.
Water, Sunlight, Temperature or Rock
What is a unbalanced ecosystem?
Unbalanced ecosystem occurs when there are significant changes in the environment that disrupt that natural relationships between organisms
What type of relationship occurs when both organisms benefit?
Mutualism
What is a dichotomous key?
A Dichotomous Key is a tool to help identify organisms based on their characteristics. There is a tabular key and a branching key.
What are the main components of a food chain?
Producers, consumers and decomposers
What acronym is used to distinguish between living, non-living and dead?
MRS C GREN
What can cause an unbalanced ecosystem?
Ecosystems can become unbalanced due to factors such as climate change, human activities and the introduction of invasive species.
What type of relationship occurs when one organism benefits and the other is harmed? Provide an example.
Parasitic
Tick and Dog
What are the 7 different classes of the Hierarchy of Classification?
2. Phylum
3. Class
4. Order
5. Family
6. Genus
7. Species
What is the difference between an omnivore, a carnivore and a herbivore?
Omnivore = eats both meat and plants
Carnivore = eats meat
Herbivore = eats plants
What is the biggest difference between Abiotic and Biotic Factors
Biotic = Living
Abiotic = Non-living
What happens to a food web once a predator is removed?
If a predator is removed from a food web, it can lead to an overpopulation of prey species, which may then overconsume the producers, disrupting the entire ecosystem
What do organisms compete for within an ecosystem?
Resources, shelter, food.
What is the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates?
Vertebrates are about 5% of animals; they are classed into mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds. Invertebrates are the other 95% of animals (they don't have a backbone)
What are the different trophic levels of a food chain?
Trophic levels include producer, first consumer, and apex predator.
What role do decomposers play within an ecosystem?
They are living organisms that help to break down dead things and create nutrients for the producers
What is a trophic cascade?
It is caused by the addition or removal of top predators, which can lead to dramatic changes in the ecosystem.
What realtionship is a whale and barnical an example of?
Commensalism
What are mammals, marsupials and monotreme mammals?
Mammals are species whose offspring come with a placenta, like humans. Marsupial mammals are when the offspring are born and then crawl into the mother's pouch, like Kangaroos. Monotreme mammals are species that are born in leather-like shells, for example, platypi.
What is the equation for Photosynthesis?
Carbon dioxide and water use sunlight energy to convert into oxygen and sugar.
Carbon Dioxide + Water = Glucose and Oxygen
What is the significance of the tolerance range as opposed to the optimum range within ecosystems?
The optimum range is where organisms can thrive and survive, whereas the tolerance range is where species or organisms can survive but not thrive.
How does an invasive species create an unbalanced ecosystem?
Invasive species create a distruption in the natural relationships between the different species in the food chain, creating it unbalanced like a scale.
What can these relationships tell us about the interactions within an ecosystem?
It can create different dynamics between the organisms within an ecosystem. This is due to the negative effects that different species can have - invasive and introduced species.
How do we write the scientific names of certain animals?
We use the genus as the first name and the species as the second. For example for the tiger we say Pathera tigris.