chapter 4-2: what shapes an ecosystem?

Question 1

what are biotic factors?

Answer 1

biological influence on organisms in an ecosystem

Question 2

what are some examples of biotic factors?

Answer 2

other organisms in the ecosystem (ecological community)

Question 3

what are abiotic factors? examples?

Answer 3

physical factors that shape ecosystems

eg temperature, precipitation, humidity

Question 4

what is a niche?

Answer 4

full range of conditions in which an organism lives in (eg what it eats, temperature)

Question 5

how do broad leaved trees compete for sunlight?

Answer 5

growing taller

Question 6

what is the competitive exclusion principle?

Answer 6

no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time (one will beat out the other)

Question 7

what is symbiosis?

Answer 7

a relationship where two species live close together

Question 8

whaat is mutualism?

Answer 8

both species in a symbiosis benefit

Question 9

what is commensalism?

Answer 9

one member of the symbiosis is helped and the other is unaffected

Question 10

what is parasitism?

Answer 10

an organism benefits from living on/inside another organism, and the other organism is harmed

Question 11

what happens when a whale dies?

Answer 11

it sinks to the ocean floor, and within a year, scavengers have eaten all its flesh.
bacteria decompose the whale, and the nutrients are used to start a new ecosystem of mussels, crabs, snails, etc.