Ecology Flashcards
What is a living organism?
An individual capable of life. It could be a tiny bacterial cell or yeast cell, or it could be a tree or elephant or insect. All of these individual organisms.
What is a habitat?
The place where an organism lives, e.g. a tadpole lives in the water habitat, but a woodlouse lives in a woodland habitat
What is an abiotic factor?
A nonliving factor that affects where an organism can live BG temperature PH wind, speed, carbon dioxide or oxygen availability
What is a biotic factor?
A living factor that affects where an organism can live
E.g. food, availability competition, new diseases and new predators are all biotic factors
What is the population?
All the individuals of the same species in the same habitat
What is a community?
All the individuals of different species in the same habitat
What is an ecosystem?
The interaction of the community of living organisms and the abiotic factors that affect them
How do living organisms interact?
To survive and reproduce organisms need to supply materials from the environment and from the other organisms living there
What do plants compete with each other for?
Plants need light, water, mineral, irons and space to grow. Some plants are better competitors for these factors.
What do animals compete with each other for?
Animals need oxygen, water, food, meat, and territorial. Some animals are better competitors than others
What is interdependence?
Species in a community depends on each other for food, shelter, pollination, seed dispersal etc if one species is removed, the community becomes unstable
What is a stable community?
A community where all the species and all the environmental factors are in balance
Why are adaptations of living organisms important?
Adaptations can help individuals survive in their normal conditions
There are three types of adaptation, structural, functional and behavioural
How can we spot a stable community?
In a stable community, the population sizes remain fairly constant. This is a sign of stability.
What is a structural adaptation
And I’m Dad Titian, of how the organism is built.
Eg camels have a hump which stores fat. This structure helps it survive without water and foods for a long time
What is a functional adaptation?
Adaptation of how the organism functions
E.g. desert rats produce almost no urine. This function helps it survive in low water conditions.
What is a behavioural adaptation?
Adaptation of how the organism behaves, e.g. desert rats are nocturnal (They sleep in borrows during the heat of the day). This behaviour helps keep it away from heat and some predators.
What is an extremophile?
Any organism (but usually bacteria) that can survive high temperatures, high pressures or high salt concentrations. Bacteria living in deep sea vents survive at a very high pressure.
What are producers?
Any organisms that produce their own glucose supply by photosynthesising using light from the Sun as their energy source. Producers are green plants or algae
What are consumers?
Any organisms that have to eat to get food. Some consumers graze on producers and other consumers hunt and kill to get their food.
What is biomass?
The mass of living tissue in an organism.It is usually calculated as dry mass by drying out the organism until no water remains inside it cells
What is a food web?
A series of interconnected food chains
Webs show more detailed information about all the different foods that an organism might consume
What is a primary consumer?
A consumer that eats plants (producers)
What is a secondary consumer?
Consumer that eats primary consumers
What is the predator species?
A consume in a hunt and kills other consumers
What is a food chain?
Flowcharts to show, feeding relationships or food chain start with a producer an arrow means “ is energy for” or “ is eaten by”
What is a prey species?
A Consumer that is hunted and killed for food
What is a predator prey cycle?
A graph that shows the rise and fall of predator and prey, populations over time in a stable community
Well known eg is the lynx and the snowshoe hare which live in northern Canada
What do you mean by distribution of a species?
The location in a habitat that a particular species is found
For example, bluebells are found distributed mainly in Woodlands and under hedges
What do you mean by abundance of species?
The number of individuals of a particular species. For example, there may be a higher abundance of bluebells near the edges of the woodland then at the centre.
How do we measure distribution and abundance?
Using quadrats and transects to find a sample of the species. The sample should be representative of the whole habitat. There are two main sampling techniques.
What processing can we do with the abundance data?
Calculate the mode, mean or median and range. We can plot graphs to show how abundance of a species changes to a habitat/how abundant difference between two habitats
What is the required practical for this unit?
Measuring the population size of a species in a habitat using sampling techniques
What is the carbon cycle?
The cycling of carbon between the atmosphere, plants and respiring organisms
Why is the carbon cycle important?
Carbon dioxide is taken in by plants during photosynthesis and released back into the atmosphere during respiration.
If there is an imbalance due to too much combustion, it causes problems.
What can go wrong with the carbon cycle?
Too much combustion causes carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to rise
This can lead to global warming as carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.
What do micro organisms do in the carbon cycle?
Micro organisms digest the carbohydrates in waste material, producing glucose; and then respire the glucose.
This also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and minerals to the soil.
What do we call microorganisms in the carbon cycle?
Any micro organism that digests carbohydrates, and then respires the glucose is called a decomposer. This process is called decomposition.
What is the water cycle?
The cycling of water between the atmosphere (as water vapour and clouds) and the water stores (rivers, lakes and oceans)
Why is the water cycle important?
all living organisms need a supply of freshwater for humans are drinking water needs to be potable (safe for drinking)