Ecology Basics & Levels of Organization
What term describes nonliving parts of the environment like water, sunlight, and temperature?
What are abiotic factors?
What two rates are used to calculate population growth?
What are birth rate and death rate?
What term describes the maximum population an environment can support?
What is carrying capacity?
What type of growth best describes global human population growth over time?
What is exponential growth?
The population of humans on Earth is around __ billion.
What is 8.1?
What level of organization includes multiple populations interacting in the same area?
What is a community?
What type of growth happens when births are greater than deaths?
What is positive growth?
Name one limiting factor that can affect population growth.
Food, water, space, disease, predation, temperature, etc.
What belief states that technology can solve resource problems caused by population growth?
What is Cornucopian theory?
Explain why emigration can lower the population in an area. Give one reason why organisms may emigrate.
Ecologists study...
the interactions between the levels of organization (or the biotic & abiotic factors) of an area.
What type of population growth slows and levels off over time?
What is logistic growth?
What happens to birth rates when resources become scarce?
Birth rates decrease
What belief states that Earth’s resources are limited and population growth will cause environmental damage?
What is Neo-Malthusian theory?
What is food, water, nutrients, and space?
Put the 6 levels in order from smallest to largest
Organism → Population → Community → Ecosystem → Biome → Biosphere
Clumped: organisms live in small groups within the area.
Random: there is no pattern to how organisms are spread.
Even: organisms are spread equally throughout the area.
There are two types of limiting factors: density-dependent & density-independent. Explain what each is and give an example.
Density-dependent limiting factors will affect a population's size more if a population is living closer together. An example is disease.
Density-independent limiting factors will affect a population's size no matter how spread out it is. An example is weather.
These problems can arise if a population is experiencing overpopulation.
What is more demand on food and water (possibly leading to shortages) and higher pollution levels (possibly leading to more illnesses/disease).
Why don’t populations grow exponentially forever in real ecosystems?
Because resources become limited and limiting factors reduce growth