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58 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a food chain?
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A succession of organisms in an ecological community that constitutes a continuation of food energy from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and in turn is preyed upon by a higher member.
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What is a food web?
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The complex interconnection of food chains in an ecosystem. How one chain connects to another.
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What is an ecosystem?
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A community of organisms and the non-living physical environment in which they interact. All members of the community are linked by the flow of energy and nutrients throughout the system.
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What does biotic mean? Examples.
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The living components of an ecosystem. Feces, animal, plants, microorganisms.
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What does abiotic mean? Examples.
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The physical or non-living components of an ecosystem. Sunlight, water, weather, clouds.
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What is a producer?
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Organism that uses the energy form the sun to make its own food, typically through the process of photosynthesis. Their energy is storied as chemical energy in the form of sugars or carbohydrates. (aka, autotrophs).
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What is a consumer?
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An organism that obtains its food by eating other organisms. (aka heterotrophs).
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List the three types of consumers.
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PRIMARY CONSUMER - Feeds directly on plants.
SECONDARY CONSUMER - Feed on organisms that eat plants. TERTIARY CONSUMER - Top carnivore. |
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What is a carnivore, herbivore and omnivore?
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Carnivore - Meat/animal eater.
Herbivore - Plant eater. Omnivore - Eats both plants and animals. |
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What is a scavenger, detrivore and decomposer?
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Scavenger - Feeds on the bodies of larger dead animals.
Detrivore - Feeds on the bodies of smaller dead animals, dead plant matter and animal dung. Decomposer - Eats dead or decaying organic matter then release nutrients to be used by other organisms. (Such as worms). |
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What are the trophic levels?
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Refers to an organism's position in the food chain. Producers like autotrophs are always at the base and top carnivores (tertiary consumers) are always at the top.
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List all four trophic/feeding levels.
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(From bottom to top)
AUTOTROPHS/PRODUCERS (plants, food/energy source) HERBIVORE/HETEROTROPH (PRIMARY CONSUMER) (deer, squirrel, rabbits, vegans) CARNIVORE/SECONDARY CONSUMER (fox, bears, meat eaters) TOP CONSUMERS (TERTIARY) (Usually omnivores), Feeds on everything below) (humans, sharks, eagles) |
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What are the feeder types?
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Autotroph/Producers, Herbivores/Heterotrophs/Primary Consumers,
Carnivores/Secondary Consumers Top Consumers/Tertiary Consumers |
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What is a habitat?
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A habitat refers to the place of type of place where an organism most commonly occurs.
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What is a carrying capacity?
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The largest population size of a given species that an area can support without reducing its ability to support the same species in the future. Population size is stable when death : birth ratio equal.
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What are the three factors that limit carrying capacity?
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1. Materials and energy. The amount of usuable energy form the sun and the supply of water, carbon and other essential nutrients.
2. Food chain. Food supply (population sizes or biomass in lower trophic levels) and predators (population sizes in higher trophic levels) 3. Competition - Intraspecific competition between members of the same species. Interspecific competition between different species. |
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What two categories can limiting factors be divided into?
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1. Density dependant factors are factors that become more significant as population increases in size.
2. Density independent factors are factors taht limit the size of the population regardless of the its size. |
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Examples of density dependant factors.
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Space, light, predators, parasitism, migration, toxic waste, diseases and food and water supplies.
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Examples of density independent factors.
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Weather, storms, fires, earthquakes, drought, freezes, hurricane, floods, forest fires.
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What is a symbiosis?
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An interaction between members of two different species that live together in close association.
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What is mutualism?
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A symbiotic relationship between two different species in which both species benefit form the association.
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What is commensalism?
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a symbiotic relationship between two different species in which one species benefits from the association whereas the other is not adversely affected or harmed.
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What is parasitism?
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A symbiotic relationship between two different species in which one species (called parasite) benefits at the expense of the other species (called host).
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What is predation?
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An ecological relationship between two different species in which one captures and feeds on the other.
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What is competition?
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A negative ecological interaction in which the individuals inhabiting the same geographical area require the same limited resources.
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What are the four species categories?
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Keystone, charismatic, dominant and systems engineer?
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What is a keystone species?
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Species that are not abundant like a dominant species, but can be equally as important.
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What is a dominant species?
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Species that are so abundant that they have the biggest biomass of any community member.
(In TERRESTRIAL ecosystems, they are always primary producers because consumer biomass is always less than producer biomass). |
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What is a charismatic species?
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Large animal species with widespread popularity that environmentalists uses to achieve certain goals. Such species are the more "appealing" or "attractive" species.
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What is a systems engineer?
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These species cause such dramatic changes to landscapes that they create a new ecosystem.
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Example of a keystone species.
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Wolves, jaguars, bees, elephants, hummingbirds. (A lot are predators).
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Examples of dominant species.
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Any species that have the highest biomass in their surrounding habitat.
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Examples of systems engineer.
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Beaver.
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Examples of charismatic animals.
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Giant panda, Polar bear, Siberian Tiger
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What is environmental stewardship?
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The idea that all humans are responsible for looking after the biosphere - a huge piece of property that belongs to all livings things.
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What is bioremediation?
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The use of living organisms to clean up contaminated areas naturally.
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What is bioaugmentation?
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The use of living organisms to add essential nutrients to depleted soils.
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What is ecology interdependence?
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The understanding that the species on Earth cannot live without one other.
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What is green energy? Examples.
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A natural source of energy that is also renewable. Solar power. Wind power. Hydropower. Geothermal power. Biofuel (biodiesel and ethanol). Biomass.
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What is an energy pyramid?
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An ecological pyramid that is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or biomass productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
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List all the types of energy pyramid (learned).
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Pyramid of numbers. Inverted pyramid of numbers.
Pyramid of biomass. Inverted pyramid of biomass. Pyramid of energy flow (can NEVER get reverted)> |
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What is the pyramid of biomass and what is the inverted pyramid of biomass?
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The pyramid of biomass shows the relative amounts of biomass (mass x number of organisms) at each trophic level.
An inverted pyramid of biomass happens when the food source in a trophic level are less abundant than the organisms that consume them. |
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Example of an inverted pyramid of biomass.
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Pine beetles are smaller than the pine trees they feed on, but one tree can support a large population of beetles, causing an inverted pyramid of biomass.
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What is a pyramid of numbers and what is an inverted pyramid of numbers?
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The pyramid of numbers shows the feeding relationships and the relative population sizes of organisms at each link in the food chain.
An inverted pyramid of numbers happens when the densities of particular animals are not necessarily less than those of the plants that they eat. (i.e especially insects). |
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Example of an inverted pyramid of numbers.
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Pine beetles are smaller than the pine trees, but one pine tree can hold numerous pine beetles, causing a reversion.
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What is the pyramid of energy flow?
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The pyramid of energy flow shows the decrease in energy that is available at each successive trophic level.
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Why can't the pyramid of energy flower be inverted?
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Because in the pyramid of energy the 1st(bottom level) passes on 10% of the energy to the next, and that level passes only 10% of the energy to the 3rd level. If it was inverted it would be impossible to pass up energy up because there would be almost no energy to begin with therefore making it inefficient.
The amount of available energy becomes less and less, which is why there really can't be more than four trophic levels. Law of Thermodynamics. |
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How is energy lost between feeding levels?
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It takes energy to create new organisms, grow, breathe, digest food, etc. You burn calories (energy) just by sleeping. Any effort made by an organism of heat given off is energy lost. Also, an entire trophic level is not consumed by the next level.
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What are three alternative fuel types?
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Ethanol, methane and vegetable oil.
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What are the pros and cons of ethanol?
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PROS : Reduces air pollutants, already used to power cars, economy growth.
CONS : Costly, will need to use agricultural land for ethanol production. |
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Pros and cons of methane gas.
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PROS: Environmentally friendly. Available technology. Endlessly renewable.
CONS : Not enough to power anything. |
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Pros and cons of veggie oil.
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PROS: Algae consumes C02 so better for environment, two birds with one stone, non toxic and renewable, technology is available.
CONS: Algae requires specific special conditions. A lot of land is requires. Algae can be easily contaminated. |
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Producers act as essential gateways for which nutrients to enter the ecosystem?
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Nitrogen and Carbon.
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Explain the carbon cycle.
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Carbon is released into the air, absorbed by plants. Plants photosynthesize. Carbon dioxide + Water = Oxygen and Sugars. Plants release this oxygen. Animals breathe in the oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide and the cycle continues.
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Explain the phosphorus cycle.
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Due to water and erosion, phosphorus inside the rocks will seep out into the water. The plants absorb it and the animals eat it, resulting in the phosphorus getting contained into their bodies. The animals/plants then die and the phosphorus returns back into the soil.
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Explain the nitrogen cycle.
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Nitrogen from the atmosphere is fixed through nitrogen fixation or nitrification. Nitrogen fixation fixes the nitrogen and plants are able to absorb it, then other species eat the plants and gets contained in their bodies. Nitrification is when the decaying organic matter releases nitrate and nitrites that turns into ammonium, which seeps back into the soil. The third way nitrogen gets cycled is denitrification - a chemical process that converts nitrates back into molecular nitrogen.
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What is the human impact on the biosphere?
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Aerial photography and satellites show in vivid detail the results of laying waste to vast areas of forest and the harm done by poisons that humans have been pumping into the water and air during the century and a half since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
An alarmingly large hole in the Earth’s protective covering of atmospheric ozone appears over the Antarctic. Toxic hazes settle over major cities. Once fertile areas of the planet become desert, never to be green again within our lifetimes. Due to modernization, we are destroying the ecosystem very quickly. |
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What are cane toads?
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The venomous cane toads are invasive species brought to Australia in hope of controlling their destructive cane beetle species. Instead, the cane toads reproduced remarkably rapidly and soon became out of control. Due to its poisonous nature, it has caused the rapid depletion of Australia's natural species.
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