Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Define: 1. Habitat 2. Population 3. Community |
1. Place where an organism lives 2. All the organisms of one species living in a habitat 3. The populations of different species living in a habitat |
|
Define: 1. Abiotic factors 2. Biotic factors 3. Ecosystem |
1. Non living factors (e.g. temperature) 2. Living factors (e.g. food) 3. Interaction of a community of living organisms with the non living parts of their environment |
|
Give three things that: 1. Animals compete for 2. Plants compete for |
1. Space (territory), water, food, mates 2. Light, space , water , minerals in soil |
|
What does interdependence mean? |
Each species depends on other species for resources to survive (e.g. food, pollination) |
|
Why is it dangerous if a species becomes extinct in an ecosystem? |
Because it can have knock on effects on many other species |
|
What does the term 'stable community' mean? |
That the population sizes of most species are roughly constant |
|
Give an example of 4 abiotic factors: |
1. Moisture level 2. Light intensity 3. Temperature 4. CO2 level 5. Wind intensity 6. Oxygen level 7. Soil pH and mineral content |
|
Explain the effects on plants of low mineral content soil: |
Cause them to have nutrient deficiencies, which in turn affects plant growth and cause a decrease in population size |
|
Give 4 examples of biotic factors: |
1. New predators 2. Competition - one species might heavily outcompete another 3. New pathogens 4. Availability of food |
|
Name the three types of adaptation: |
1. Structural 2. Behavioural 3. Functional |
|
What's the point of adaptation? |
Allow a species to survive more easily in an environment |
|
Define structural adaptations and give an example: |
Definition: features of an organism's body structure For example: camouflage to hide, layers of fat to keep heat |
|
Define behavioural adaptation and give an example: |
Definition: ways an organism behaves For example: migration to warm climates in winter |
|
Define functional adaptation and give an example: |
Definition: things that go on inside an organism's body For example: desert animals sweat very little to conserve water and have concentrated urine |
|
What is an extremophile? |
Something adapted to live in very extreme conditions, e.g. a microorganism living at deep sea vents despite the intense pressure lack of sunlight and high C02 levels |
|
What are the first three types of organism in every good chain? |
Producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer |
|
What does biomass mean? |
The energy stored in a plant, which is the energy transferred to the primary consumer when it eats it |
|
Why is it more efficient to eat plants then animals? |
Because the more stages of a food chain there are the less efficient they become as biomass is wasted (through the animals using energy) at every stage, therefore going straight from producer to us is the most efficient energy transfer |
|
Describe why this graph goes up and down: |
When the rabbit population goes up it causes the fox population to increase (after some time) as there is more food. However more foxes means soon there will be less rabbits, which in turn means less foxes, causing the cycle |
|
In a field, where would most daisies grow? |
Where the environment suits it, for example in good sunlight and where the soil has minerals |
|
What's the point in using a transect line? |
To study the distribution of organisms along it |
|
The water cycle on earth is a closed cycle, what does this mean? |
No water is taken or added from it |
|
Give the three basic steps of the water cycle: |
Evaporation/transpiration ---> condensation ------> precipitation |
|
Which process cycles the used elements of a food chain back to the start? |
Decay |
|
Give one way that carbon is taken from the environment and 2 how it is given out: |
Taken from - photosynthesis Given out - respiration, burning wood/ fossil fuels (combustion) |
|
Define biodiversity: |
The variety of different species of organisms on earth, or within an ecosystem |
|
Why is high biodiversity important ? |
Keeps ecosystems stable as they can depend on each other for food/shelter |
|
What do you humans do that reduce biodiversity? |
Deforestation Waste production Create pollution |
|
Name the three types of pollution and give an example of each: |
1. Water - sewage leak 2. Land - landfill 3. Air - smoke /acidic gases lead to acid rain |
|
Why is the greenhouse effect necessary in moderation? |
As it acts as an insulating layer to keep the planet warm, without it we would die |
|
What are the two main greenhouse gases? |
Carbon dioxide and methane |
|
Give 3 consequences of global warming: |
1. Rising sea levels 2. Reduction in biodiversity 3. Changes in migration patterns 4. Distribution of many wild animals and plant species would change |
|
What is locked carbon? |
Carbon trapped in materials, for example fossil fuels, trees or peat bogs |
|
Give three ways humans use lands and the main problem with this: |
1. Building, quarrying , farming, landfill This all means there's less space for other species |
|
Give three problems with deforestation: |
1. Less CO2 taken in due to less photosynthesis 2. CO2 is given out when trees are burnt 3. Less biodiversity |
|
Are bogs acidic or alkaline? |
Acidic |
|
Why don't thinks full decay in bogs? |
Because there's not enough oxygen for something to break it down |
|
As things aren't broken down fully in bogs, what element is stored in them? |
Carbon |
|
Why is it bad to destroy peat bogs? |
Adds more CO2 to the atmosphere |
|
Give three examples of programmes that aim to protect biodiversity: |
1. Breeding programmes to prevent endangered species from becoming extinct 2. Programmes to protect and regenerate rare habitats like coral reefs 3. Reintroduce hedgerows and field margins where would flowers and grasses are left to grow, provides habitats for a wider variety of organisms 4. Regulations to reduce the level of deforestation, and regulations to limit co2 output from businesses 5. Encourage people to recycle to reduce landfill |
|
Give 3 conflicting pressures that make it difficult to maintain biodiversity |
1. It's expensive, have to pay to get farmers to grow hedgerows 2. Leave people unemployed, those with jobs as tree fellers no longer are allowed 3. Food security, some pests (such as locusts and foxes) need to be killed off to protect crops 4. Development, people would rather cut down trees to get space for new homes than protect biodiversity |
|
|
:) |