Ecosystems

Front 1

Define ecosystem

Back 1

Any group of living organisms and non living organisms occurring together and the interrelationships between them

Front 2

Define habitat

Back 2

A place where an organism lives

Front 3

Define population

Back 3

All the organisms of one species that live in the same place at the same time

Front 4

Define community

Back 4

All the populations of different species that live in the same place at the same time and interact with each other

Front 5

define biotic Factor and give an example

Back 5

the living organisms in an ecosystem that can affect each other

example food supply, predators and diseases

Front 6

Define abiotic factors and name examples

Back 6

Non living components of an ecosystem example pH temperature and soil type

Front 7

Why are ecosystems referred to as dynamic

Back 7

Because ecosystem population size Rise and Fall by the state of very notably because of their interactions in the ecosystems between the living organisms and their physical environment

Front 8

Give two examples that show ecosystems are dynamic

Back 8

The Predator population size goes up and the prey population size goes down

Nitrogen fixing plants grow in nitrogen deficient soil they affect the environment by increasing the nitrogen levels in soil there for plants can grow there as well

Front 9

Define the term producer

Back 9

A producer supply chemical energy to all other organisms and they are usually photosynthetic organisms such as algae and plants

Front 10

Define consumer

Back 10

All the other organisms like animal and fungi are consumers

primary consumers are herbivores I eat the plants and secondary consumers are carnivorous

Front 11

Define the term decomposers

Back 11

Living things called decomposers feed on waste material or dead organisms such as bacteria fungi and some such as bacteria fungi and some animals

Front 12

Is parasitism biotic or abiotic

Back 12

Biotic biotic

Front 13

Is water ph biotic or abiotic

Back 13

Abiotic

Front 14

is light intensity biotic or abiotic

Back 14

Abiotic

Front 15

is competition biotic or abiotic

Back 15

Biotic

Front 16

what's the difference between a consumer and a producer

Back 16

A producer is autotrophic and converts light energy into chemical energy where as a consumer gains energy and materials by eating other living things

Front 17

What is the difference between a habitat and a niche

Back 17

Habitat is where an organism lives but a niche is a role of the organism in the ecosystem

Front 18

Describe the niche of a rabbit that lives in a field

Back 18

Provides waste for decomposers to feed on

Digs Burrows

Provide food for foxes and birds of prey

Front 19

Suggest why two species never occupy exactly the same niche in an ecosystem

Back 19

If they occupy the same niche they will compete when will be better at competing than the other and Will Survive and reproduce where as the other will fail to reproduce and die out

Front 20

How is energy transferred through ecosystems

Back 20

Producer to primary consumer to secondary consumer to tertiary consumer

Front 21

what do the arrows in food chains represent

Back 21

They represent the direction of energy transfer rather than who eats what

Front 22

Why are energy transfers in efficient

Back 22

I teach trophic levels living organisms need the energy to carry out Life Processes and so less energy is passed on through the food chain

Front 23

Why are pyramids of biomass better than pyramid of number

Back 23

pyramid of numbers does not always provide an accurate picture about how much living tissue exists at each level biomass pyramids show bars are proportional to dry mass of all organisms at the trophic level

Front 24

What are the issues with pyramid of biomass

Back 24

You need the dry mass of all organisms this can be quite destructive

Another problem is different species may release different amount of energy per unit mass

Front 25

what is an alternate of the pyramid of biomass

Back 25

Pyramid of energy using a calorimeter

Front 26

What is a calorimetry

Back 26

Working out how much energy is released per gram this is calculated from the temperature rise of a known mass of water

Front 27

what are the issues with pyramids of energy

Back 27

there are to destructive and also rather time consuming

Front 28

What is productivity

Back 28

The rate at which energy passes through each trophic level in a food chain is measured of the productivity

Front 29

What is productivity measured in

Back 29

Kilojoules or mega joules of energy per square metre per year

Front 30

What is primary productivity

Back 30

Is the total amount of the energy fixed by photosynthesis it is the source of carbon from the atmosphere to plants per unit time

Front 31

what is gross primary productivity

Back 31

The rate at which plants convert light energy into chemical energy

Front 32

what is net primary productivity

Back 32

It is the rate at which carbohydrate accumulates in the tissues of plants of an ecosystem and is measured in dry organic mass

Front 33

Explain why ecologists may prefer to draw a food web instead of a food chain

Back 33

Food webs give a better understanding of the energy flow through a whole eco system rather than just one food chain

Front 34

Explain why ecologist may prefer to draw a pyramid of energy instead of a pyramid of biomass

Back 34

Because pyramid of energy provides more accurate picture of energy at each trophic level this is because dry Mass in different organisms may release different amount of energy

Front 35

Explain why there are fewer individuals at higher trophic level in a food chain

Back 35

Because energy is lost at each trophic level there is less energy for each successive trophic level meaning fewer and fewer organisms can survive at higher and higher trophic levels

Front 36

Suggest why most food chains have no more than five stages

Back 36

Because energy list food unit each trophic level eventually there's not enough energy to sustain any individuals at highest trophic level

Front 37

Suggest why primary productivity is higher in tropical regions closer to the equator than in more temperate places closer to the poles

Back 37

In tropical regions there is greater sunlight therefore Alison increase in rate of photosynthesis

Front 38

Why is less than 1% of sunlight energy reaching Earth is used for photosynthesis

Back 38

The rest is reflected by clouds and the earth's surface some of it is used to heat the Earth's atmosphere for evaporate water and the wrong wavelength is not captured by chlorophyll furthermore the light has to strike the chlorophyll to be absorbed

Front 39

What is the equation to find net primary productivity

Back 39

Primary productivity minus respiratory heat loss

Front 40

How can human activity improve primary productivity

Back 40

Crops are planted earlier to provide longest growing season for to harvest more light

Producer drought resistant strain of plants

Greenhouses can provide warmer temperatures for growing plants in

Using nitrogen fixation crops like peas and beans can replenish levels of nitrates in soil

Pesticides can be used to prevent energy loss from pest

Some plants can be pest resistant

Farmers can spray cups with fungicides or plants can be bred to be the resistant to fungal infections

Herbicides will kill weeds to prevent competition for light water and nutrients

Front 41

How can human activities improve secondary productivity

Back 41

Harvesting animals young prevent energy loss from growth

In the past farm animals were treated with steroids to make them grow faster however this has been outlawed in the EU

Selective breeding

Antibiotics avoid unnecessary loss of energy to pathogens and parasites

Preventing the animals from moving about and supplying them food

Front 42

Rainforests are an important source of biodiversity some rainforest are being cleared to grow crops for animal feed because of this some people have chosen to adopt a vegetarian diet explain the reasoning in terms of energy loss from the food chain

Back 42

Across the world a lot of land is allocated to producing meet through raring cows sheep's pigs and other farm animals the land could be allocated to arable crop production because arable crop production involve short of food chains less energy is wasted rather than a longer food chain producing farm animals if you were people ate meat Moreland be used for arable crop production and less if you were people ate meat Moreland be used for arable crop production and less rainforest would need to be used.

Front 43

Define succession

Back 43

Succession is a directional change in community of organisms over time

Front 44

How does succession happen

Back 44

Algae and lichens begin to live on bare Rock they're called the Pioneer community larger plants like mosses and ferns begin to grow and replace the algae and lichens in a similar way large plants exceed the smaller pants and finally a stable community is reached this is called a climax community

Front 45

Describe one example of primary succession resulting in a climax community

Back 45

Succession on sand dunes

Pioneer plants like sea rocket colonize near the water and tolerate the salt water spray and lack of fresh water and unstable sand

The wind blows the sand and Blows up basis of these plants forming a mini sand Dune and the plants dying Decay nutrients accumulate in a minute sand dune

Bigger plants like sea couch grass because sea couch grass has underground stems it helps stabilize sand

with more stability and nutrients plants like marram grass start to grow marram grass trapped wind blown sand and a sand accumulates the shoots grow taller and stay above the ground.trap moss and nutrients build up all the plants colonize it eventually legumes grow providing bacteria in a root nodules to convert nitrogen into nitrates With nitrates available more species can grow and colour nice the Dunes the stabilizers them further to make a climax community

Front 46

Explain the meaning of primary succession

Back 46

A directional change in a community of organisms over time beginning from bare ground

Front 47

Explain the meaning of the term Pioneer community and climax community

Back 47

a Pioneer community are the living organisms which first begin to colonize the bare ground

A climax community is the stable community that emerges at the end of a process of succession

Front 48

Explain why you have to take samples from a habitat

Back 48

Because it is often important to count or measure all the individuals in a population

Front 49

What are the two types of data you can collect using a quadrat

Back 49

You can record the presence or absence of each species distribution or you can est or count the number of individuals the abundance

Front 50

Suggest the advantages of taking samples at random

Back 50

It reduces bias influences of the individuals and hence no avoid skewing the results and increase the validity of the data

Front 51

Suggest the advantages of taking the samples at regular intervals through the habitat

Back 51

every part of the habitat is sample to the same extent

Front 52

Suggest the advantages and disadvantages of using a continuous belt transect compared to a line transect

Back 52

Continuous belt transect gives more detailed information on abundance of each species rather than just present or absence provided by a line transect the amount of work involved in a belt transect is much greater than a line transect

Front 53

Explain how you would compare the abundance and distribution of species between a school playing field and a meadow

Back 53

using a quadrat to take samples from the 2 areas

Front 54

Explain how you would estimate the abundance and distribution of species throughout a Saltmarsh

Back 54

A belt transect

Front 55

After using a quadrat how do you work out the whole population in a habitat

Back 55

Mean number of individuals of the species in each quadrat

divided by

fraction of the total habitat area covered by a quadrat

Front 56

What is distribution

Back 56

Simply the present or absense of each

Front 57

What is abundance

Back 57

The number of individuals of each species