Module 10 (vocabulary is on Biology iPad app)

Question 1

When fruits or vegetables are imported into the US from a foreign country, they are always very closely inspected for insects, even though the vast majority of insects are not really harmful. Why is the inspection done?

Answer 1

If an insect not native to the US were carried into the county through foreign fruits and vegetables, it could ruin the balance of the US ecosystem.

Question 2

see page 327, question #3

Answer 2

Organism-Possible Trophic Levels

Whale-primary consumer, secondary consumer

Sea turtle- primary consumer, secondary consumer

Phytoplankton-producer

Meran-primary consumer, secondary consumer

Ocean perch-secondary consumer

Zooplankton-primary consumer

Sea bass-secondary consumer (the medan can be a primary consumer, so if the sea bass eats a medan that eats only phytoplankton, it is a secondary consumer), tertiary consumer

Shark-secondary consumer, tertiary

Question 3

see page 327, question #4

Answer 3

a. the primary and secondary consumers have the greatest disparity in biomass
b. from producer to primary consumer wastes the least energy

Question 4

Name the participants in the three symbiotic relationships that we learned in this module. Briefly describe the roles of each participant.

Answer 4

The clownfish and the sea anemone form a mutualistic symbolic relationship. The clownfish is protected by the sea anemone and it attracts food to the sea anemone. The goby and the blind shrimp have a mutualistic symbolic relationship in which the goby protects the blind shrimp, and the blind shrimp provides a home for the goby. Finally, the Oriental sweetlips and blue-streak wrasse form a mutualistic symbolic relationship in which the sweetlips gets its teeth cleaned by the wrasse and the wrasse gets food from the sweetlips’ teeth.

Question 5

What fundamental assumption of macroevolution does mutualism seem to contradict?

Answer 5

Mutualism seems to contradict the idea that organisms always battle for survival.

Question 6

In the water cycle of an ocean shore ecosystem, more water evaporates from the ocean than falls back into the ocean in the form of rain. Why doesn’t the ocean lose water?

Answer 6

The ocean does not lose water because the land gets the excess water, and that excess water flows back into the ocean via surface runoff.

Question 7

What does the water cycle accomplish besides balancing the water in the ecosystem?

Answer 7

it transports nutrients

Question 8

What is the possible consequence if deforestation occurs in a watershed?

Answer 8

too many nutrients will flow into the river or stream, throwing off the ecosystem

Question 9

What is the principal means by which oxygen is taken from the air? What is the principal means by which it is restored to the air?

Answer 9

Oxygen is taken from the air principally by respiration and is restored principally by photosynthesis.

Question 10

Name the other ways that oxygen is removed from the air.

Answer 10

Oxygen is also removed from the air by fire, ozone formation, and the rusting of metals and minerals.

Question 11

Name the other ways that oxygen is replenished in the air.

Answer 11

Oxygen is also restored by ozone destruction and water vapor destruction.

Question 12

Name the ways in which carbon dioxide is removed from the air.

Answer 12

Carbon dioxide leaves the air by photosynthesis and by dissolving in the ocean.

Question 13

Name the ways that carbon dioxide is replenished in the air.

Answer 13

Carbon dioxide enters the air via decomposition, fossil fuel burning, fire and respiration.

Question 14

What human activity worries those who think that global warming is a problem?

Answer 14

Fuel burning

Question 15

Is human-produced global warming occurring now?

Answer 15

no

Question 16

What is nitrogen fixation? What type of organisms perform it?

Answer 16

Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into nitrogen-containing molecules that are useful to most of organisms in creation. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria perform it.

Question 17

What two ways does the nitrogen in organisms get put back into the environment?

Answer 17

Organisms emit some nitrogen in the their wastes, and the rest is turned back into useful forms of nitrogen by the decomposers that feed on their decaying remains.