SB9 Flashcards
(51 cards)
What are abiotic factors?
Non living elements (weather, soil)
Biotic factors?
Living elements (plants animals etc)
What is a biosphere
All the parts of earth that supports life
Meaning of autotrophic?
Organisms that make their own food
What is ecology?
The study of the interactions between living organisms
and their biotic and abiotic
environments.
Environment?
Surroundings of an organism that affects its life and development
What is an ecosystem?
All the communities that live in an area with abiotic factors present in the environment.
Structure of carnivore types
Primary carnivores (feed on herbivores)
Secondary carnivores(feed on primary carnivores)
Tertiary carnivores(feed on secondary carnivores)
What are decomposers?
Heterotrophs; recycle microscopic bits; dead organic matter into inorganic materials for plants
What are trophic levels?
Different feeding levels of organisms in an ecosystem
What is biomass
The total amount of organic material present in a trophic level
What does biomass in a trophic level signify?
The amount of energy in the form of food available to the next trophic level
Why does the amount of available energy in food chains decrease quickly?
90% of food chain’s energy lost at each trophic level.
Hence food chains usually have 5 or less links
How does the pyramid of biomass get its shape?
Only energy used to make biomass remains available to the next level.
At each trophic level; energy is transferred to surroundings
Less energy available; less biomass produced
How much energy is used to make biomass for the next trophic level?
Only 10% of the energy entering a trophic level forms biomass in the next level.
What is a food chain
Series of organisms that transfer food; between trophic levels; using one species at each level
Purpose of food webs
Accurately show the network of food chains representing the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem
At different trophic levels organisms feed on more than one type of organism
What is competition
When two or more organisms of the same or different species compete to use the same limited resources
What is parasitism
An organism that lives in or on a host and feeds on it without killing it immediately
Mutualism
A cooperative partnership between two different species; both benefit
Commensalism
Relationship between two different species where only one benefits and the other remains unharmed.
What is coevolution?
When two or more different species evolve in response to each other
What is biological magnification
The concentration of pollutants in organisms increase in higher trophic levels; accumulation of pollutants in fatty tissue of organism.
Organism’s body processes affected; possibly reproductive abilities
What is an ecological pyramid
A graphical representation designed to show biomass or bio-productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem