Levels of Organization
What is the smallest unit of organization in an ecosystem?
Organism
Anything that is alive or was once alive.
What is the producer in this food chain example:
sun --> grass --> rabbit --> fox
Grass (it produces its own food source by using sunlight and other nutrients from the soil)
A fox hunts rabbits and squirrels for food. The fox is an example of a...
Predator
At the base of all food chains is a source of energy that helps to produce food for all the other organisms in the food web. What usually is this source of energy?
The Sun!
(Fact: most food webs are based on the sun's relationship to plants, though other food webs may rely on chemical sources from deep in the earth's crust! Like deep in the ocean and in caves!)
What do you call a group of all the individuals of a species living in a particular ecosystem?
A population (of that species)
Is the water in a pond considered to be abiotic or biotic?
Abiotic (though it contains biotic things like algae, fish, etc. the water itself is abiotic).
What is the name for the "recyclers" of food webs, which work to return biotic material back into the soils to be used again.
Decomposers
A fox hunts rabbit and squirrels for food. The rabbit and squirrel are both...
Prey (the fox is the predator)
The relationship and systems of living and nonliving things in a particular area is called...
An ecosystem
What do you call all the populations living together in one ecosystem habitat?
Community
This term describes the environment that provides the things an organism needs to live, eat, sleep, and reproduces.
Habitat
Consumer (herbivore)
Two different species (a tree seedling and a wildflower) are both growing in a garden and need access to sunlight, water and space in the soil to grow. If one does not get enough resources because of the other this is an example of...
Competition
Bacteria, worms, beetles, and fungi are all examples of...
decomposers!
The communities of plants, animals and all living things in a particular area plus the abiotic factors is called...
An ecosystem
This describes the role that an organism plays in a particular ecosystem.
(For example, a squirrel is an herbivore, that lives in trees and forested areas, and comes out during the day.)
Niche
An organism that only eats other animals is what type of consumer?
Carnivore
There are ways that organisms interact with each other that is not predation or competition. These other interactions describing organisms' relationships are called...
Symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism)
The limit of the number of organisms an ecosystem can support sustainably.
carrying capacity
What do we call similar kinds of ecosystems which are found in many places around the world?
Biomes (Ex: deserts, tropical rainforest, tundra, temperate forests, etc.)
Name the three basic levels of roles an organism can have in a food chain or web.
If a top level consumer, like a fox or a wolf, was to be removed from a food web, what is an impact that would immediately happen?
The population of the organisms the consumer usually eats (prey) would increase, because there would not be any predators in that ecosystem.
A large grouper (a type of fish) swims up to a place in a coral reef where tiny shrimp clean up the decaying food matter in and around its teeth. This is an example of...
Mutualism (the grouper gets rid of parasites and other potential harmful causes and the shrimp get a food source)
Give 2 examples of adaptations (characteristics) that organisms have that help them better survive their environment.
(answers may vary)
Consider - predator/prey relationships, adaptations for different climates, etc.