Key Vocabulary
This term describes the maximum number of organisms an ecosystem can support long-term.
What is carrying capacity?
If a major disease is removed from a population, the population will most likely do this.
What is increase?
If predator numbers decrease, prey populations usually do this.
What is increase?
Less rainfall directly affects this first in the ecosystem.
What is plant growth (grass)?
A stable ecosystem shows small population changes over time.
What is true?
This occurs when organisms need the same limited resource.
What is competition?
When a population grows quickly and then levels off, it is likely approaching this.
What is carrying capacity?
If predator numbers increase, prey populations usually do this.
What is decrease?
If grass decreases, what happens to herbivores?
They decrease.
Large long-term population declines may suggest this.
What is ecosystem change or instability?
This is anything that restricts population size, such as disease or drought.
What is a limiting factor?
Explain why removing a disease can cause rapid population growth.
Because survival and reproduction increase when a major limiting factor is removed.
Name two factors other than predators that can affect prey populations.
Disease, food supply, water availability, or climate.
Complete the chain: Climate change → ______ → herbivore decline → predator decline.
Resource (food) decline.
Name three things that could cause an ecosystem to shift to a new balance.
Climate change, disease, predator changes, or resource decline.
This describes organisms that depend on one another to survive.
What is interdependent?
True or False: Populations can grow forever if there are no predators.
What is false? (Resources are still limited.)
Why should you not assume predators caused a prey decline without evidence?
Because multiple factors can influence population change, and correlation does not prove causation.
Explain how increased temperature and decreased rainfall can affect predators.
Less plant growth leads to fewer herbivores, which leads to less food for predators.
Why are ecosystems described as interconnected systems?
Because changes in one population affect others through food webs and resource chains
This refers to the variety of species living in an ecosystem.
What is biodiversity?
If disease prevalence decreases while population size increases, what does that suggest?
The disease was controlling the population.
If a species already experiences high predation and predator numbers increase, what will most likely happen?
The population will decrease further.
Why is food supply closely connected to rainfall in grassland ecosystems?
Because rainfall controls plant growth, which provides food for herbivores.
Explain the full cause-and-effect chain from climate change to ecosystem change.
Climate change affects plant growth, which affects herbivores, which affects predators, which can shift the entire ecosystem balance.