ECOLOGY TEST REVIEW QUESTIONS

Question 1

How do we define ecology?

Answer 1

Study of interactions between living and nonliving things in an environment

Question 2

List the levels of organization and know examples of each level.

Answer 2

Bottom to top- Producers (plants), Primary consumers (crickets), Secondary consumers (birds), Tertiary consumers (Eagles)

Question 3

What is the biosphere?

Answer 3

All living things and their interactions

Question 4

What is a biotic factor? Know examples.

Answer 4

All living things, Plants, animals, bacteria, etc.

Question 5

What is an abiotic factor? Know examples.

Answer 5

Non-living things Moisture, temperature, wind

Question 6

How do biotic and abiotic factors interact together?

Answer 6

They rely on each other to maintain balance.

Question 7

What is a keystone species, what will happen to the ecosystem?

Answer 7

It is super important, without it the ecosystem will collapse.

Beavers, bees, sea stars

Question 8

What is chemosynthesis?

Answer 8

Producers using chemicals to convert to energy

Question 9

What is a producer/autotroph?

Answer 9

Plants PRODUCE energy such as grass, trees, algae.

Grass, trees, algae.

Question 10

What is a consumer/heterotroph? Know examples.

Answer 10

Animals that eat each other (carnivores).

Question 11

What are the 7 types of consumers and describe each?

Answer 11

Herbivores- eat plants,
Carnivores- eat meat,
Omnivores- eat plants AND meat, decomposers- break down dead animals and plants which returns it into ecosystem, Primary consumers- eat producers often herbivores
Secondary Consumers eat primary consumers often carnivores or omnivores
Tertiary consumers- eat secondary consumers, often carnivores

Question 12

Why are specialists more susceptible to extinction than generalists?

Answer 12

Because specialists only eat specific types of food while generalists have a more broad variety of food and have an easier time adapting to change.

Question 13

What do the arrows in a food chain/web represent?

Answer 13

The flow of energy from one organism to another in the form of food

Question 14

What does a food chain show?

Answer 14

Shows sequence of feeding relationships

Question 15

What does food web show?

Answer 15

Shows complicated feeding relationships and energy flow in an ecosystem

Question 16

Where would you find more organisms on a food web/chain?

Answer 16

Producers (the bottom of the pyramid)

Question 17

Where would you find less organisms on a food web/chain?

Answer 17

Tertiary consumers

Question 18

If the frog is removed from the food chain what would happen?

Answer 18

The grasshopper population would increase and the Python would decrease.

Question 19

What are the various food chains in the food web?

Answer 19

In a food web is made up of various food chains.

Question 20

Where is the greatest amount of stored energy?

Answer 20

Producers

Question 21

What are the 3 types of pyramids described in this section?

Answer 21

Number pyramids- amount of animals (population) in each section.
Energy pyramid- represents energy that is available to that trophic level.
Biomass pyramid- each level represents the amount of biomass consumed by the level above it

Question 22

What are the levels of each type of pyramid representations of?

Answer 22

A different trophic level.

Question 23

On the biomass pyramid where can you find the largest amount of biomass?

Answer 23

Producers

Question 24

At which level of the food pyramid is the smallest percent of total stored energy found?

Answer 24

Top of the pyramid

Question 25

Why is there less biomass at the top of the biomass pyramid?

Answer 25

As organisms get bigger there is less energy and a smaller population.

Question 26

If birds eat insects that feed on corn, what levels would each on?

Answer 26

Corn->insects-> Birds

Question 27

If one level is over harvested/kill what will happen to the level below?

Answer 27

It will increase because of the decrease in predators.

Question 28

Why is there more energy at the bottom of the pyramid than at the top?

Answer 28

Because 90% of energy is lost to heat every level.

Question 29

Why does biomass decrease as you move up the pyramid?

Answer 29

Available biomass decreases

Question 30

What does a stable community pyramid look like?

Answer 30

Triangular

Question 31

What is the ecological niche of an organism?

Answer 31

The factor that allows the organism to survive, be healthy, and reproduce.

Question 32

What happens when 2 organisms in the same habitat occupy the same niche?

Answer 32

There are two results. One niche is suited for a species better and the other will either get pushed out or go extinct. There is competitive exclusion and niche partitioning where the niche is split. Then CE and Divergent evolution is where they both further diverge due to evolution.

Question 33

Describe the predator/prey relationship in a community in terms of increase and decrease in numbers of organisms?

Answer 33

As preys decrease predators decrease. As prey increase predators increase.

Question 34

Know the various ways in which species interact with each other and examples of each?

Answer 34

Mutualism- both species benefit (clown fish and sea anemone) Commensalism- one benefits, other is unaffected (whale and barnacle) Parasitism- one benefits, other is harmed. (dog and tick)

Question 35

In what 2 main ways do organisms interact?

Answer 35

Symbiotic and non-symbiotic

Question 36

What is symbiosis?

Answer 36

A close and long-term relationship between two different biological organisms

Question 37

Name and describe the 3 types of symbiotic relationships.

Answer 37

Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism

Question 38

What are the 3 types of population dispersion?

Answer 38

Clumped, Random, Uniform

Question 39

What is meant by population diversity?

Answer 39

The amount of individuals in a certain area

Question 40

How is population dispersion different from population density?

Answer 40

Density is how much in an area and dispersion is how spread out they are.

Question 41

What is a survivorship curve?

Answer 41

The model of how organisms survive

Question 42

What is a limiting factor?

Answer 42

What prevents a population from growing.

Question 43

Name some abiotic limiting factors.

Answer 43

Moisture, temperature, wind, sunlight, soil

Question 44

Name and describe the 2 types of population growth patterns.

Answer 44

Exponential growth and logistic growth. Exponential has unlimited resources and no predators. Logistic growth rises but then stays constant

Question 45

What 4 things change population size?

Answer 45

Immigration, emigration, deaths, and births.

Question 46

What causes an increase in population size?

Answer 46

Births and immigration

Question 47

What causes a population to crash?

Answer 47

Deaths and immigration

Question 48

What is a carrying capacity?

Answer 48

The limit of the population within a population.

Question 49

What are density dependent limiting factors?

Answer 49

Competition, predation, disease and parasitism

Question 50

What are density independent limiting factors?

Answer 50

Abiotic factors: Tornadoes, fires, natural disasters, human activity

Question 51

What factor causes a population to increase in size?

Answer 51

Higher birth rate than death rate.

Question 52

What causes a population to crash?

Answer 52

Resource scarcity, environmental stress, disease outbreaks, and the carrying capacity of the habitat being exceeded

Question 53

Why is density a limiting factor for parasites?

Answer 53

When there are not enough hosts for the parasite to get onto than they will die.

Question 54

What is ecological succession?

Answer 54

A process of change in the species that make up a community

Question 55

What is a pioneer organism? Name 3 pioneer organisms. What are the characteristics of a pioneer organism?

Answer 55

First species to colonize a barren or disturbed environment. Lichens, mosses, fungi, grass. R-+apid growth, shade intolerance, and high reproductive rates ## Footnote Lichens, mosses, fungi, grasses

Question 56

What type of pioneer organisms would occupy bare rock?

Answer 56

Some lichens and mosses

Question 57

What is a climax community?

Answer 57

The final stage of ecological succession, where an ecosystem reaches a relatively stable state with a characteristic species composition

Question 58

What is abiotic succession?

Answer 58

Changes in an environment primarily driven by non-living factors, like geological processes, climate, or environmental disturbances