Ecology

Question 1

What is ecology?

Answer 1

ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms and the environment where the sun is the ultimate source of energy

Question 2

What is the environement?

Answer 2

surroundings which change as per movement, made up of biotic elements and abiotic elements. abiotic and biotic elements are dependent upon each other.

Question 3

Give examples of biotic elements

Answer 3

plants, animals, fungi etc.

Question 4

Give examples of abiotic elements

Answer 4

climate, soil, water, sunlight, air etc.

Question 5

What is the environmental system hierarchy? (from smallest to biggest)

Answer 5

organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere

Question 6

What is an organism? (env. system hierarchy)

Answer 6

living thing that can carry out all the basic life processes such as eating, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to the environment. it can be a single-celled or multicellular entity

Question 7

What is a population? (env. system hierarchy)

Answer 7

group of organisms of the same species that live in the same area and can interbreed

Question 8

What is a community? (env. system hierarchy)

Answer 8

group of populations of different species living in the same environement and interacting with each other

Question 9

What is an ecosystem? (env. system hierarchy)

Answer 9

combination of all living and nonliving things in a particular area, interacting with each other to form a self-regulating system

Question 10

What is a biosphere? (env. system hierarchy)

Answer 10

the global ecosystem (sum of all ecosystems) that includes all living things, their environment, and the interactions between them

Question 11

What is a habitat?

Answer 11

natural environment or home of an organism. it is the specific place where a plant, animal, or other organism lives, grows, and reproduces

Question 12

What is a niche?

Answer 12

role or position of an organism within an ecosystem, including the activities it performs and the resources it uses

Question 13

What are limiting factors in an environment?

Answer 13

abiotic or biotic factors that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population or species within an ecosystem

Question 14

What are examples of limiting factors in an environment?

Answer 14

availability of food, water, shelter, space, disease, predation, competition, temperature, humidity, soil quality, and other environmental conditions

Question 15

What are producers? (feeding relationships)

Answer 15

organisms that are autotrophs, make their own food through processes like photosynthesis, and they form the base of the food chain in feeding relationships

Question 16

What are consumers? (feeding relationships)

Answer 16

organisms that are heterotrophs and ingest food containing the sun’s energy, they rely on other organisms for their food

Question 17

What is commensalism? give an example (symbiotic relationships)

Answer 17

one species benefits, while the other species is neither helped nor harmed. example: an orchid taking shelter on a tree

Question 18

What is parasitism? give an example (symbiotic relationships)

Answer 18

one species (the parasite) benefits while the other species (the host) is harmed. example: tick feeding on a dog’s blood

Question 19

What is mutualism? give an example (symbiotic relationships)

Answer 19

both species rely on each other for survival and gain an advantage from the interaction. example: bees and flowers, bees collect nectar from flowers as a source of food, and in the process, they inadvertently transfer pollen from one flower to another, facilitating the reproduction of the plants.