Ecology

Question 1

Give a specific example of a population.

Answer 1

Examples may include:
A pack of dogs;
A gaggle of geese;
A flock of sheep;
A herd of horses;
A murder of crows.

Question 2

This term is used to describe all of the populations within an ecosystem.

Answer 2

What is a community.

Question 3

The biosphere is defunded as this.

Answer 3

The portion of the Earth that can sustain life.

Question 4

Define “ecosystem”.

Answer 4

An ecological system consisting of the community and physical factors.

Question 5

Name and describe one process that forms ecosystems.

Answer 5

Two possible answers:

Primary succession
(first growth)

or

Secondary Succesion
(re-growth)

Question 6

Define autotroph and heterotroph.

Answer 6

An autotroph is an organism that produces its own food (usually from sunlight).

A heterotroph is an organism that relies on other organisms for food (it must physically ingest food).

Question 7

Come up with a food chain that consists of four trophic levels. Then, describe each level, beginning with “producer”.

Answer 7

Producer
Primary Comsumer
Secondary Consumer
Tertiary Consumer

Question 8

Describe and Define an energy pyramid.

Answer 8

An energy pyramid is a pyramid that reflects the amount of energy in the trophic levels.
It depicts the “10 percent law”, which states that 10% of energy from one trophic level is passed on to the next.

Question 9

What is biomass and at which trophic level would you find the most biomass and why.

Answer 9

Biomass is the dry weight of organic matter (living tissue) in an ecosystem. Most of the biomass is found within the 1st trophic levels (the producers), because you need a lot of them to feed higher level carnivores.