Section 2

Question 1

Ecologists study ecology in order to understand the ___ and ___ of life within Earth’s ecosystems.

Answer 1

Abundance

Diversity

Question 2

Change is a constant process in ecosystems that is driven by ___, ___ and ___.

Answer 2

Climate shifts
Species movement
Ecological succession

Question 3

___ has an impact on ecosystems because global circulation patterns and climate zones.

Answer 3

Geography

Question 4

___, ___, ___, and ___ determine what types of life are most likely to flourish in an area.

Answer 4

Temperature
Moisture
Light
Nutrient availability

Question 5

___ are broad geographic zones whose plants and animals are adapted to different climate patterns.

Answer 5

Biomes

Question 6

___ biomes are typically named for their characteristic types of vegetation, which influences what kinds of animals will live there.

Answer 6

Land

Question 7

___ biomes cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface.

Answer 7

Aquatic

Question 8

Organisms that live in temporary ___ environments must be adapted to a wide range of conditions and be able to disperse between habitats.

Answer 8

freshwater

Question 9

__- represent consistent sets of conditions for life.

Answer 9

Biomes

Question 10

___ areas generally have more plant and animal biodiversity.

Answer 10

Tropical

Question 11

___ is the scientific study of relationships in the natural world.

Answer 11

Ecology

Question 12

Biodiversity is measured in ___.

Answer 12

Species richness

Question 13

___ refers to the pattern of tropical areas having more plant and animal biodiversity.

Answer 13

Latitudinal biodiversity gradient

Question 14

Higher ____ in the tropics allows for more species.

Answer 14

Productivity

Question 15

The tropics were not severely affected by ___ and have had more time for species to develop and adapt.

Answer 15

Glaciation

Question 16

Environments are more stable and predictable in the ___, with fairly consistent temperatures and rainfall levels.

Answer 16

Tropics

Question 17

More ___ and ___ limit competition in the tropics, which allows more species to coexist.

Answer 17

Predators

Pathogens

Question 18

Disturbances occur in the tropics at frequencies that promote high ___.

Answer 18

Successional diversity

Question 19

Evidence is strongest for the proposal that a ___ tends to produce larger numbers of species.

Answer 19

Stable, predictable environment

Question 20

“The ecosystem may be formally defined as the system composed of ___ processes active within a space-time unit of any magnitude, i.e. The biotic community plus it’s abiotic environment”

Answer 20

Physical-chemical-biological

Question 21

A ___ is a major ecological community type that covers a large geographic area with similar climatic features.

Answer 21

Biome

Question 22

___ biomes cover 75% of the earth’s surface.

Answer 22

Aquatic

Question 23

The characteristics of aquatic biomes are set by ___, ____, and ____.

Answer 23

Temperature
Light
Nutrients

Question 24

Terrestrial biomes are controlled by their ___ and ___ regimes.

Answer 24

Temperature

Rainfall

Question 25

___ characteristics vary from one biome to another, depending on local climate and geology.

Answer 25

Soil

Question 26

One way to visualize major land biomes is to compare them based on their average ___ and ___, which combine to create a range of climates.

Answer 26

Temperature | Rainfall

Question 27

___ is defined in thermodynamics as the capacity to do work.

Answer 27

Energy

Question 28

___ energy is stored in chemical bonds.

Answer 28

Chemical

Question 29

___ energy is the energy of motion.

Answer 29

kinetic

Question 30

First law of thermodynamics...

Answer 30

Energy is not created nor destroyed; it can change forms but it must come from somewhere.

Question 31

Second law of thermodynamics.

Answer 31

As energy flows through systems and changes from one form to another, less is available because some is always lost to heat.

Question 32

The ultimate source of energy for animals is ___.

Answer 32

Plants

Question 33

Animals cannot synthesize organic compounds, but they need complex ___ from plants or other animals.

Answer 33

Carbon

Question 34

___ absorb nutrients, convert them into other forms, and discard wastes.

Answer 34

Organisms

Question 35

Elements and compounds are cycled between ___ and ___ parts of ecosystems.

Answer 35

Biotic | Abiotic

Question 36

Six elements account for 95% of all matter in living things:

Answer 36

C, H, N, O, P, S

Question 37

___ nutrients are those that must be supplied for an organism to live.

Answer 37

Essential

Question 38

For most plants ___ elements are essential nutrients.

Answer 38

Seventeen

Question 39

A basic measure of how ecosystems capture light energy and make organic compounds is called ___ or ____.

Answer 39

Productivity | Production

Question 40

Productivity, or production, refers to the production of ___ that forms the base of all ecosystems.

Answer 40

Biomass

Question 41

___ is the total amount of living matter per unit area or volume of a habitat or ecosystem.

Answer 41

Biomass

Question 42

___ is the rate of production of organic matter.

Answer 42

Productivity

Question 43

___ is the amount of energy or material formed by an individual, population, community, or ecosystem.

Answer 43

Production

Question 44

___ refers to the generation of biomass via fixation of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.

Answer 44

Primary production

Question 45

___ is the energetic basis of almost all ecosystems except deep ocean hypo thermal vents.

Answer 45

Photosynthesis

Question 46

___ is the amount of carbon dioxide lost from an individual, population, community, or ecosystem.

Answer 46

Respiration

Question 47

Ecosystems maintain themselves by cycling __ and ___ obtained from external sources.

Answer 47

Energy | Nutrients

Question 48

At the ___ tropic level, primary producers use solar energy to produce organic plant material through photosynthesis.

Answer 48

First

Question 49

___ make up the second tropic level.

Answer 49

Herbivores

Question 50

Predators that eat herbivores comprise the ___ tropic level.

Answer 50

Third

Question 51

Organisms that feed at several tropic levels are classified at the ___ of the tropic levels at which they feed.

Answer 51

Highest

Question 52

About ___% of net energy production at one tropic level is passed on to the next.

Answer 52

10%

Question 53

Processes that reduce the energy transferred between tropic levels include ___, ___, ___, ___, ___.

Answer 53

Respiration Growth and reproduction Defecation No predatory death

Question 54

___ of material that is consumed influences how efficiently energy is transferred.

Answer 54

Nutritional quality

Question 55

___ is the total amount of biomass produced by photosynthesis.

Answer 55

Gross primary productivity

Question 56

___ is gross primary production minus respiration by photosynthetic organisms.

Answer 56

Net primary productivity

Question 57

(Rate of photosynthesis) - (rate of respiration)

Answer 57

Net primary productivity

Question 58

___ is production by everything else, including metabolism and growth.

Answer 58

Secondary production.

Question 59

____ is plant matter.

Answer 59

Phytomass

Question 60

___ makes up 99% of all biomass on earth.

Answer 60

Phytomass

Question 61

___ makes up only 1% of biomass on earth, and is animal matter.

Answer 61

Zoo mass

Question 62

99.7% of biomass stored in plant matter is found in ____ ecosystems.

Answer 62

Terrestrial

Question 63

0.3% of total photo mass is found in ____ ecosystems.

Answer 63

Marine

Question 64

Ocean primary production is performed by small __ that rapidly turn over their biomass.

Answer 64

Phytoplankton

Question 65

In ___ ecosystems, temperature, rainfall, and nutrients control productivity.

Answer 65

Terrestrial

Question 66

In ___ ecosystems, light penetration and nutrients control productivity.

Answer 66

Marine

Question 67

Ecosystems support higher tropic levels through the conversion of ___ and ___ with sunlight as an energy source, to organic compounds.

Answer 67

``` Inorganic carbon (CO2) Water ```

Question 68

The low rate of energy transfer between tropic levels makes ___ more important than producers in terms of energy flow.

Answer 68

Decomposers

Question 69

___ process large amounts of organic material and return nutrients to the ecosystem in inorganic form, which are then taken up again by primary producers.

Answer 69

Decomposers

Question 70

Energy is not recycled during ___, but rather is released, mostly as heat.

Answer 70

Decomposition

Question 71

___ in land ecosystems typically rises with temperature up to 30 C, after which it declines.

Answer 71

Productivity

Question 72

Productivity is positively correlated with ___.

Answer 72

Moisture

Question 73

On land, ___ is highest in warm wet zones in the tropics.

Answer 73

Productivity

Question 74

___ ecosystems have the lowest productivity because their climates are extremely hot and dry.

Answer 74

Desert Scrub

Question 75

Marine primary productivity is ___ near coastlines and other areas where upwelling brings nutrients to the surface, promoting plankton blooms.

Answer 75

High

Question 76

___ from land is a source of nutrients along the continental shelves.

Answer 76

Runoff

Question 77

___ and ___ have the highest net primary production in aquatic ecosystems.

Answer 77

Algal beds | Coral reefs

Question 78

Lowest rates of net primary production in aquatic ecosystems occur in ___ due to a lack of nutrients.

Answer 78

Open sea

Question 79

The number of trophic levels that an ecosystem can support depends on ____ ___, ___.

Answer 79

Energy entering the ecosystem Energy loss between levels Form/structure/physiology of organisms at each level

Question 80

Because of energy losses, terrestrial ecosystems typically have no more than ___ trophic levels.

Answer 80

Five

Question 81

Marine ecosystems typically have no more than __ trophic levels.

Answer 81

Seven

Question 82

A large fraction of the ___ that land plants produce cannot be consumed, so less energy travels up the food chain.

Answer 82

Biomass

Question 83

An important consequence of the loss of energy between trophic levels is that ___ collects in animal tissues.

Answer 83

Contaminants

Question 84

___ refers to the collection of contaminants in animal tissues.

Answer 84

Bioaccumulation

Question 85

Abrupt changes at the top of a food web can trigger domino effects in the ecosystem known as ____.

Answer 85

Trophic cascades

Question 86

___ refers to species that are so important to an ecosystem that they can influence many other trophic levels.

Answer 86

Keystone species

Question 87

___ is the number of individuals in the population.

Answer 87

Population size

Question 88

____ is how many individuals are in a particular area.

Answer 88

Population density

Question 89

___ is how the size of the population is changing over time.

Answer 89

Population growth

Question 90

Exponential growth works by leveraging increases in population size, and does not require increases in ____.

Answer 90

Population growth rates

Question 91

Each organism has a ___ that dictates how it spends its energy on growth, survival, and reproduction.

Answer 91

Life history strategy

Question 92

An organism's ___ determines how it's population will vary over time.

Answer 92

Life history strategy

Question 93

___ are species that produce many offspring, each with less chance of survival to adulthood.

Answer 93

R-selected

Question 94

___ species are potentially more adaptable to unstable environments.

Answer 94

R-selected

Question 95

___ are species that invest in fewer offspring, each with a better chance of survival to adult in stable environments.

Answer 95

K-selected

Question 96

Organisms that are ___ have the ability to grow their populations exponentially at a maximum rate when resources are abundant and population levels are below the carrying capacity.

Answer 96

R-selected

Question 97

The growth of ___ populations may be closer to a linear growth rate because they have fewer offspring and spend more time with their young.

Answer 97

K-selected

Question 98

Exponential and linear growth models are ___ of population growth.

Answer 98

Ideal extremes

Question 99

On a graph of time (x-axis) and population (y-axis), the slope of the line gives the ____.

Answer 99

Growth rate

Question 100

Relationship equation between rate of growth and population increase.

Answer 100

N(t) = rat + N(0)

Question 101

N(t) = rt + N(0) N = ?

Answer 101

Population number

Question 102

N(t) = rt + N(0) R = ?

Answer 102

Growth rate

Question 103

N(t) = rt + N(0) T = ?

Answer 103

Time

Question 104

N(t) = rt + N(0) N(0) = ?

Answer 104

Initial population at time 0

Question 105

The equation for an exponential growth curve is:

Answer 105

Y = e^x Or x = ln y

Question 106

Equation for exponential growth curve of a population "N" =

Answer 106

N(t) = N(0)e^(rt)

Question 107

N(t) = rt + N(0) N(t) = ?

Answer 107

Population at time "t"

Question 108

The relationship for doubling time - the time it takes for the population to double (equation)

Answer 108

T = ln2/r

Question 109

Every organism divides its energy among three goals: ___, ___, and ___.

Answer 109

Growing Surviving Reproducing

Question 110

Ecologists refer to an organism's allocation of energy as its ___.

Answer 110

Life history strategy

Question 111

___ organisms tend to be small, short-lived, and grow through boom-and-bust population cycles.

Answer 111

R-selected

Question 112

In a growing population, __ and ___ rates will not stay constant over time.

Answer 112

Survival | Reproduction