Chapter 3 Biology

Question 1

Ecology

Answer 1

The scientific study of interactions among organisms, populations and communities and their interactions with the environment.

Question 2

What are the levels of organization?

Answer 2

Individual, population, community, ecosystem, biomes, biosphere

Question 3

How do you gather ecological data?

Answer 3

LOTS of observation and experimentation, the natural environment is hard to manipulate

Question 4

Biotic factor

Answer 4

Any living part of the environment with which an organism might interact

Question 5

Abiotic factor

Answer 5

Any nonliving part of the environment, such as sunlight, heat, precipitation, humidity, wind or water currents, and soil types.

Question 6

Biosphere

Answer 6

A thick skin of life that covers the earth, it includes all parts of earth in which life exists

Question 7

What does the word ecology come from?

Answer 7

“oikos” meaning house

Question 8

What do humans need to survive?

Answer 8

A healthy ecological system for essential needs like drinking water, healthy soil

Question 9

What are the 3 main approaches for ecology?

Answer 9

Observation, experimentation, and modeling

Question 10

What are abiotic factors influenced by?

Answer 10

Organisms

Question 11

Weather

Answer 11

Day to day conditions of the Earth’s atmosphere

Question 12

Climate

Answer 12

long term patterns of temperature and precipitation over many years

Question 13

Microclimate

Answer 13

The climate of a very small or restricted area, especially when this differs from the climate of the surrounding area

Question 14

What are some examples of microclimates?

Answer 14

Moss - cool/moist environment, found on trees typically

Question 15

Green house effect

Answer 15

The process in which certain gasses(carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor) trap sunlight energy in Earth’s atmosphere as heat

Question 16

What does the green house effect do for the earth?

Answer 16

It retains heat and maintains a fairly moderate temperature range in the atmosphere

Question 17

What does H2O do in the greenhouse effect?

Answer 17

It adds a lot of energy to raise temperature, and takes away a lot of energy to lower the temperature

Question 18

What does temperature reflect?

Answer 18

How fast molecules are moving

Question 19

Why is it hard to get H2O molecules moving really fast?

Answer 19

Because they stick to eachother

Question 20

What enhances the greenhouse effect?

Answer 20

Manmade changes

Question 21

How is earth’s average temperature determined?

Answer 21

By the balance between the amount of heat that stays in the atmosphere and the amount of heat that is lost to space

Question 22

Where does climate come from?

Answer 22

Solar energy coming from sunlight striking the earth’s surface

Question 23

What is climate defined by?

Answer 23

Patterns and averages of temperature, precipitation, clouds, and wind over many years

Question 24

Global Winds

Answer 24

Patterns caused by uneven heating of earth’s atmosphere

Question 25

Where do seasons occur?

Answer 25

In temperate regions, because there is differential sunlight at different times of the year

Question 26

What causes global wind patterns?

Answer 26

Warm air rising and cool air sinking because earth is spinning on its axis

Question 27

Which is more predictable, weather or climate

Answer 27

Climate - weather changes rapidly and is much harder to predict

Question 28

How is the global climate system powered and shaped?

Answer 28

By the total amount of solar power retained in the atmosphere as heat, and by unequal distribution of that heat between the equator and the poles

Question 29

What are the 3 main climate zones?

Answer 29

Tropical, temperate, and polar

Question 30

What does solar energy result in?

Answer 30

Seasons

Question 31

What occurs when there is an unequal distribution of heat?

Answer 31

Wind and ocean currents

Question 32

How are ocean currents formed?

Answer 32

By patterns of warming and cooling, winds, and the location of the continents

Question 33

How is regional climate shaped?

Answer 33

By latitude, the transport of heat and moisture by winds and ocean currents, and by geographical features like mountain ranges, vast bodies of water, and ocean currents.

Question 34

What do changes in climate impact?

Answer 34

The atmosphere and hydrosphere

Question 35

What causes a climate change?

Answer 35

Changes in solar energy, variations, in earth's orbit, meteorite impacts, mountain building, and volcanic activity

Question 36

What are abiotic factors in aquatic ecosystems

Answer 36

Water depth, currents, and nutrient availibility

Question 37

What are the layers of marine ecosystems?

Answer 37

Interdial zone, coastal ocean, open ocean, photic zone, aphotic, benthic zone

Question 38

What are the 3 main freshwater ecosystem

Answer 38

Rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, and freshwater wetlands

Question 39

Estuary

Answer 39

A wetland that forms where a river meets the sea

Question 40

What happens to salinity in estuaries during different seasons?

Answer 40

It varies

Question 41

Biome

Answer 41

A group of ecosystems that share the same climates and typical organisms

Question 42

Humus

Answer 42

A rich material found in soil, formed from decaying laves and other organic matter

Question 43

How many biomes are there

Answer 43

10 - Tropical rain forest, tropical dry forest, tropical grassland, desert, temperate grassland, temperate woodland and shrubland, temperate forest, northwestern carnivorous forest, boreal forest/tundra, and tundra

Question 44

How are biomes described?

Answer 44

In terms of abiotic factors such as climate and soil type, and biotic factors such as plant and animal life

Question 45

How are biomes summarized?

Answer 45

On a climate diagram

Question 46

How are biomes today

Answer 46

There are not many left, because 75% of all land has been altered by humans

Question 47

How are marine ecosystems described

Answer 47

By salinity, depth, temperature, flow rate, and concentrations of dissolved nutrients

Question 48

What are the 3 main types of aquatic ecosystems?

Answer 48

Marine, freshwater, and estuaries

Question 49

How do fish use estuaries?

Answer 49

They are used for spawning and nursery grounds for many ecologically and commercially important fish and shellfish