Highest_priority_cards_7_-_all_duplicates

Question 1

Q: Niche

Answer 1

The ecological role and space that an organism fills in an ecosystem. An animal’s niche includes its usage of resources, its unique way of life and its relationship to other biotic and abiotic factors. No two species hold the exact same niche.
“Niche: all of the environmental factors and interspecies relationships that influence the species.” (https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/niche/)
(further details on other cards)

Question 2

Q: What happens if two organisms are competing for the same niche?

Answer 2

No two species can occupy the exact same niche, though species may share the same habitat.
If two species are competing for the same niche, the one that is best adapted to the range of conditions present will survive by having the higher birth rate and/or lower death rate.
In natural situations, species that might compete have evolved ways to reduce competition and divide resources.

Question 3

Q: Name some main, broad components of an organism’s niche

Answer 3

Where it lives, when it is active, what it eats.

Question 4

Q: Describe how the koala has special adaptations allowing it to survive in a particular niche.

Answer 4

-The koala has a 7 foot long, enlarged cecum, which houses microorganisms, that help break down fiber in eucalyptus leaves.
-This adaptation, in addition to a digestive system that detoxifies the toxic oils in the leaves, has enabled koalas to eat eucalyptus leaves, which few animals can consume.
-It is thought that eucalyptus trees produce the oil as a protection against leaf eating animals such as insects.
-Koala young need to build up their immunity to the eucalyptus toxins.
-They are fed “a fecal pap” for about 30 weeks, which prepares their own digestive tract for the adult diet, allowing them to tolerate the toxins and fibrous eucalyptus. To facilitate this feeding, a koala’s pouch faces down and backward.
-Because the koala is one of only a couple animals able to eat eucalyptus leaves, they have exclusive access to an ecological food niche and the eucalyptus trees are less apt to be over foraged.

Question 5

Q: Arboreal

Answer 5

living in the trees.

Question 6

Q: Fossorial

Answer 6

Adapted to digging and life underground.

Question 7

Q: Name a way species avoid competition (by occupying different niches)

Answer 7

Hunt or forage for food at different times of the day. Those who forage at night are nocturnal. Those who hunt during the day are diurnal and those who hunt during the twilight (either dawn or dusk) hours are considered crepuscular.

Question 8

Q: Name three terms describing the time of day when an animal is active

Answer 8

Those who are active at night are nocturnal. Those who are active during the day are diurnal and those who are active during the twilight (either dawn or dusk) hours are considered crepuscular.

Question 9

Q: Photosynthesis

Answer 9

A process used by plants to convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy that can be later released to fuel the plant’s activities.
-The sun’s energy is captured by chlorophyll in the plant’s leaves. This energy fuels a chemical reaction with carbon dioxide and water to produce glucose, the main fuel that powers life. Oxygen is a by-product of this reaction and is released into the air.

Question 10

Q: What is the ultimate source of energy and organic material for animals?

Answer 10

Plants (via photosynthesis)

Question 11

Q: Describe plant respiration

Answer 11

Plants must breathe just as animals do; they take in oxygen and give off carbon
dioxide. Their photosynthetic activity is however greater than their respiratory activity
resulting in an increase in atmospheric oxygen levels.

Question 12

Q: Producers vs consumers

Answer 12

Producer: Organisms in an ecosystem that produce biomass from inorganic compounds. They make their own energy. E.g., plants, bacteria at deep-sea ocean vents (hydrogen sulfide + methane -> glucose).
Consumer: organisms of a food chain that receive energy by consuming other organisms.
Through photosynthesis, plants make their own nutrients; they are producers. Anything that eats a plant (or another consumer) is considered a consumer.

Question 13

Q: Interdependence

Answer 13

The idea that everything in nature is connected to everything else; what happens to one plant or animal also affects other plants and animals.

Question 14

Q: Food chain

Answer 14

The linear sequence of who eats whom in an ecosystem to obtain nutrition.

Question 15

Q: Example of interdependence

Answer 15

A food chain.

Question 16

Q: List & describe the main parts of a food chain

Answer 16

Producer - make their own energy via photosynthesis (plants) or chemosynthesis (bacteria at deep-sea ocean vents; hydrogen sulfide + methane -> glucose).
Consumers - get energy from the food they eat; they survive by eating producers or other consumers, gaining the chemical energy from the original process of the producer
-Primary consumer - Herbivores. Eats plants.
-Secondary/tertiary consumer - Eats a primary(/secondary) consumer; is a carnivore.
-Decomposer - Break down dead plant and animal matter at any level and help recycle nutrients back into the soil so that they can be used again. In this way nutrients are cycled through the food chain.

Question 17

Q: Herbivore, Carnivore, Omnivore

Answer 17

Herbivore: an animal that gets its energy from eating plants, and only plants.
Carnivore: an animal that gets its energy from eating other animals
Omnivore: Eats both meat and vegetation.

Question 18

Q: *Folivore, Frugivore, Insectivore

Answer 18

Folivore: eats only(/primarily) leaves
Frugivore: eats only(/primarily) fruit
Insectivore: eats only(/primarily) insects (subset of carnivore)
Note: insects are considered meat

Question 19

Q: Nutrients (and examples in humans)

Answer 19

Inorganic compounds providing nourishment for living things.
Examples:
-phosphorous, which is in your teeth, bones, and cellular membranes.
-nitrogen, which is part of your amino acids, the building blocks of protein and the iron in your blood.

Question 20

Q: Food web

Answer 20

A food web shows the more complex feeding connections/relationships present in an ecosystem, with circular paths connecting consumers back to producers.
Several food chains put together.

Question 21

Q: What is one reason it’s important to understand the interrelationships between organisms and their environment?

Answer 21

Helps us understand how best to protect ecosystems

Question 22

Q: Adaptation

Answer 22

Special characteristics or features (evolved over time) which allow a species to be successful in their habitat.
Animals that live in similar environments develop similar adaptations.

Question 23

Q: Kinds of adaptations

Answer 23

There are both physical and behavioral adaptations.

Question 24

Q: Examples of adaptations

Answer 24

-Camouflage - an external physical characteristic. Blend into environment and avoid detection. A dry, savanna animal will be tan or brown, a wet, rainforest animal will be glossy green, and so forth.
-Coloring with physiological benefit - lighter colors reflect more of the sun’s radiation than a darker one and thus helps them to remain cool.
-Seeking shade resting in the hottest part of the day - (e.g., kangaroo) a behavioral adaptation

Question 25

Q: Discuss trophic levels

Answer 25

-Levels of the food chain; animals classified by their feeding behavior[; animals in the same level share the same nutritional relationship to the primary source of energy]
-1st trophic level: plants collect about 1% of the sun’s energy [that falls on them].
-Each successive trophic level: 10% of available energy is transferred to next level.
-The rest of the energy is used up in metabolic processes, movement, heat.
-There are fewer and fewer species at each higher level.
-Energy is transferred from the producer, to herbivore, to consumer/predator, to the decomposer.
-Net loss of energy as you move up, fewer animals can be supported at each higher level.
-The collective mass (biomass) of all the biological material becomes less at each higher trophic level.
-Nutrients are cycled through a food web and returned to the soil by the decomposers, but the energy lost to the environment cannot be recycled.

Question 26

Q: Biomass

Answer 26

Collective mass of the biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms in an ecosystem (or a subset of an ecosystem) at a given time.