Ch. 3 Test

Question 1

What contains portions of the planet of which all life exists?

Answer 1

biosphere

Question 2

What are the five levels of organization?

Answer 2

species
population
community
ecosystem
biome

Question 3

What is a group of organisms that are so similar to each other that they can breed and produce offspring?

Answer 3

species

Question 4

What is a group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area?

Answer 4

population

Question 5

What is an assembly of different populations that live together in an area?

Answer 5

community

Question 6

What is a collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place together with their physical environment?

Answer 6

ecosystem

Question 7

What is a group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities?

Answer 7

biome

Question 8

What are three ways scientists conduct ecological research?

Answer 8

observing
experimenting
modeling

Question 9

Why might an ecologist set up an artificial environment in a laboratory?

Answer 9

To imitate and manipulate conditions that organisms would encounter in the natural world

Question 10

Why do ecologists ask questions that would range from an individual to the biosphere?

Answer 10

to understand relationships in the biosphere

Question 11

Why are ecological phenomena so difficult to study?

Answer 11

because they occur over long periods of time or on such large scales

Question 12

Why do ecologists make models?

Answer 12

to gain insight into the complexity of the natural world

Question 13

Can an ecological model consist of a mathematical formula?

Answer 13

yes

Question 14

What is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environments?

Answer 14

ecology

Question 15

What are organisms that can capture energy from sunlight or other chemicals and use that energy to produce food?

Answer 15

autotroph

Question 16

What captures energy from sunlight and capture chemical energy?

Answer 16

producer

Question 17

What is it called when autotrophs use light energy to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy-rich carbohydrates?

Answer 17

photosynthesis

Question 18

What is the process in which organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates?

Answer 18

chemosynthesis

Question 19

What are organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply?

Answer 19

heterotroph

Question 20

What is an organism that feed on other organisms?

Answer 20

consumer

Question 21

What is an organism that obtains energy by only eating plants?

Answer 21

herbivore

Question 22

What is an organism that only eats animals?

Answer 22

carnivore

Question 23

What is an organism that feeds on plants and animal remains?

Answer 23

omnivore

Question 24

What is an organism that breaks down organic matter?

Answer 24

decomposer

Question 25

What is a series in steps in which organisms transfer enery by eating and being eaten?

Answer 25

food chain

Question 26

What is the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem form a network of complex interactions?

Answer 26

food web

Question 27

What is each step in a food chain or food web called?

Answer 27

trophic level

Question 28

What is a diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level?

Answer 28

ecological pyramid

Question 29

What is the total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level?

Answer 29

biomass

Question 30

What is the main energy source for life on Earth?

Answer 30

sunlight

Question 31

Why are autotrophs called producers?

Answer 31

because they produce their own food

Question 32

What makes up the first trophic level? What makes up the rest?

Answer 32

producers | consumers

Question 33

What four elements make up over 95% of the body?

Answer 33

oxygen hydrogen carbon nitrogen

Question 34

Matter moves through an ecosystem in ______________________ cycles.

Answer 34

biogeochemical

Question 35

What do biogeochemical cycles connect through?

Answer 35

biological geological chemical aspects of the biosphere

Question 36

Which cycle enters the atmosphere by evaporating from the leaves of plants in the process of transpiration?

Answer 36

water cycle

Question 37

What are the three processes involved in the water cycle?

Answer 37

precipitation evaporation runoff

Question 38

What are the three nutrient cycles that play important roles in the biosphere?

Answer 38

carbon cycle nitrogen cycle phosphorus cycle

Question 39

What are the four processes of the carbon cycle?

Answer 39

biological processes geochemical processes human activities

Question 40

What is the key ingredient in all living organisms?

Answer 40

carbon

Question 41

What do organisms require to make amino acids which are used to build protein?

Answer 41

nitrogen

Question 42

What is the process by which bacteria converts nitrogen into ammonia?

Answer 42

nitrogen fixation

Question 43

What is the process by which some soil bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas and releases nitrogen into the atmosphere?

Answer 43

Denitrification

Question 44

What is essential to living things because it forms part of important life sustaining molecules such as DNA and RNA?

Answer 44

phophorus

Question 45

What is it called when an ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient?

Answer 45

limiting nutrient