A1 The Biosphere Review

Question 1

What are the 3 interacting components that the Earth consists of?

Answer 1

-Atmosphere: the gaseous portion of the Earth
-hydrosphere: all of the water on Earth
-lithosphere (geosphere): the solid portion of the earth

Question 2

Describe the atmosphere

Answer 2

-Layer of gasses (air) that surround and protect life on Earth
-pressure allows for liquid to exist
-absorbs ultraviolet solar radiation
-reduces temperature the extremes

Question 3

What is dry air composed of?

Answer 3

78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases (carbon dioxide, water vapour, etc)

Question 4

What is the troposphere?

Answer 4

-Lowest level of Earth’s atmosphere
-contains nearly all atmospheric water vapour
-most weather takes place here

Question 5

Describe the biosphere

Answer 5

-All areas on Earth that are inhabited by and support life
-Earth is a closed system to matter
-no matter enters or leaves the biosphere
-molecules are used and reused

Question 6

Describe matter and energy

Answer 6

-Matter cycles and energy flows
-all life requires matter and energy
-earth is a closed system to matter
-no matter enters or leaves the biosphere
-molecules are used and reused

Question 7

What is an organisms environment?

Answer 7

-Includes all the things that affect the organism and all the things the organism effects

Question 8

What is biotic and abiotic?

Answer 8

-Biotic are the living components of the environment (predators, plants)
-abiotic are the non living components of the environment (sunlight, water, air)

Question 9

What is a species?

Answer 9

-Organisms that are able to breed and produce viable offspring (offspring that can reproduce)

Question 10

What is taxonomy?

Answer 10

-The practise of classifying living things

Question 11

How is life organized?

Answer 11

Domain (3) - Dear
Kingdom - King
Phylum - Philip
Class - Comes
Order - Over
Family - For
Genus - Good
Species - Spaghetti

Question 12

What are the 3 domains of life based on?

Answer 12

-The cellular composition of organisms

Question 13

What are the domains of life?

Answer 13

1. Bacteria
2. Archaea
3. Eukarya

Question 14

Describe bacteria

Answer 14

-One of the 3 domains of life
-prokaryotic (lack a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular organisms, reproduce asexually, move by flagella

Question 15

Describe archaea

Answer 15

-One of the 3 domains of life
-prokaryotic (lack a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular, produce asexually, distinctive plasma membrane and cell wall chemistry

Question 16

Describe eukarya

Answer 16

-One of the 3 domains of life
-eukaryotic (have a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular or multicellular, sexual reproduction, each kingdom has specialization

Question 17

What are the 6 kingdoms partially based on?

Answer 17

-Their mode of nutrition

Question 18

What are the 6 kingdoms?

Answer 18

-Kingdom plantae: organisms that photosynthesize
-kingdom aramalia: ingest their food (eat)
-kingdom fungi: secret digestive enzymes and then absorb the molecules
-kingdom protista: vary

Question 19

What is a dicthotomus key?

Answer 19

-Identification keys which use identifiable characteristics to identify organisms
-each step gives 2 choices (e.g red or not red)

Question 20

What is binomial namenclature?

Answer 20

-Way to show names of organisms based on their classification systems
-uses genus (capital) and species (lowercase)
-in Latin and italicized

Question 21

What is a population?

Answer 21

-Individuals of the same species living in a specific location at the same time
-e.g Canada are the same species but different populations

Question 22

What is biodiversity?

Answer 22

-Differences that allow some members of a population to be better adapted to their environment

Question 23

What is structural adaptation?

Answer 23

-Physical features of an organism

Question 24

What is physiological adaptation?

Answer 24

-Internal responses to external stimuli (to maintain homeostasis)

Question 25

What is behavioural adaptation?

Answer 25

-Activities that an organism does to survive the environment
-in animals controlled by nerves and hormones and in plants controlled by hormones or enzymes
-plants and animals respond to stimuli

Question 26

What are the 3 categories of adaptations?

Answer 26

1. Structural adaptation
2. Physiological adaptation
3. Behavioural adaptation

Question 27

What is tropism?

Answer 27

-Used to describe the orientation of plants according to some stimulus

Question 28

What are communities?

Answer 28

-Consists of all the individuals in all of the interacting populations in a given area

Question 29

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 29

-A community of populations, together with the abiotic factors that surround and affect it
-includes all biotic and abiotic parts of the environment

Question 30

What are the 2 types of competition?

Answer 30

-Intraspecific competition: competition between members of the same species
-interspecific competition: competing between members of different species

Question 31

What is climate?

Answer 31

-The average weather conditions in a particular region over at least a 30 year period

Question 32

How is climate determined?

Answer 32

-By temperature and precipitation resulting from the unequal heating of the earth, and other local factors (e.g. geography, snow cover, large bodies of water, etc)

Question 33

What are biomes?

Answer 33

-A large ecosystem or group of ecosystems
-particular mixture of plants, animals and climate
-distribution is affected primarily by climate