Study Guide Science Test Unit Ecology

Question 1

What are some key differences between plants and animals?

Answer 1

Plants only stay in one place while animals tend to move around, animals will consume plants and/or other animals for energy while plants use photosynthesis (the sun), and plants grow throughout their life while some animals stop growing or do not grow at all.

Question 2

Describe the role of decomposers?

Answer 2

The role of decomposers is to get rid of waste and dead organisms to make space and provide nutrients for plants.

Question 3

A food web shows the flow / cycling of what?

Answer 3

A food web shows the cycling of matter and the flow of energy being passed down organism to organism.

Question 4

What are some examples of producers?

Answer 4

Some examples of producers are flowers, grass, trees, and berry bushes.

Question 5

What is a common source of energy?

Answer 5

The common source of energy is the sun.

Question 6

What do you know about introduced species?

Answer 6

An introduced species is a species that is being brought to a new and different environment than its natural environment,

Question 7

What are disruptions in the ecosystem?

Answer 7

Disruptions in ecosystems can be both biotic and abiotic factors such as wildfires, invasive species, and lack of water,

Question 8

Understand the difference between competition, parasitism, predation, and mutualism

Answer 8

Competition is when organisms compete for limited food, parasitism is when one species benefits in a relationship and the other gets harmed, predation is a prey and predator relationship, and mutualism is when 2 species benefit from a relationship.

Question 9

What do you know about invasive species?

Answer 9

Invasive species are species that have been introduced to a new environment and are causing harm.

Question 10

What should solutions have?

Answer 10

Solutions for invasive species should have successful control or elimination such as adding predators, limiting necessary factors such as food and water, and taking away their food source.

Question 11

Identify factors that can cause a decline in a given species’ population

Answer 11

Factors that can cause a decline in a given species’ population is lack of sources such as no more energy being passed down to them, too many predators, not enough food, and not enough space for them to thrive in.

Question 12

Abiotic:

Answer 12

Something that is non-living.

Question 13

Biodiversity

Answer 13

The different life at every level in an ecosystem.

Question 14

Biotic

Answer 14

Something that is living

Question 15

Commensalism

Answer 15

The relationship between 2 organisms where 1 species benefits and the other species doesn’t get harm nor benefited

Question 16

Competition

Answer 16

The relationship between 2 organisms where both organisms compete for the same source.

Question 17

Consumer

Answer 17

An organism that gets food by eating other organisms

Question 18

Decomposer

Answer 18

An organism that breaks down waste and rotting or dead organisms.

Question 19

Ecology

Answer 19

The study of the relationships between organisms to each other and their ecosystems.

Question 20

Ecosystem

Answer 20

Abiotic and biotic components and the relationships with them.

Question 21

Energy Pyramid

Answer 21

A model to show the flow of energy and cycling of matter per level.

Question 22

Food Web

Answer 22

Multiple food chains in an ecosystem

Question 23

Introduced Species

Answer 23

A species that has been brought to a new environment that they aren’t native to.

Question 24

Invasive Species

Answer 24

An introduced species that is causing harm to their new environment

Question 25

Matter

Answer 25

Stuff that makes all abiotic objects

Question 26

Mutualism

Answer 26

The relationship between 2 organisms in which they both benefit

Question 27

Parasitism

Answer 27

The relationship between two organisms in which one benefits and one gets harmed

Question 28

Photosynthesis

Answer 28

The process where plants change water and carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen.

Question 29

Predator

Answer 29

An organism that eats eats another organism.

Question 30

Prey

Answer 30

An organism that gets eaten by another organism.

Question 31

Producer

Answer 31

An organism that creates their own food

Question 32

Symbiosis

Answer 32

A long-term interaction between 2 species in a relationship.

Question 33

How have the Nile Perch changed Lake Victoria? What are the trade-offs of introducing a species into a new environment?

Answer 33

Nile Perch has changed Lake Victoria because it has changed the population of other fish such as the cichlids by consuming more of them. The trade offs for introducing a new species into a new environment is that the species may benefit for other species because they might give new/more necessary resources but they also might harm other species in the environment.

Question 34

What effect can an introduced species have? What should be done about an invasive species?

Answer 34

The effect that an introduced species can have is to harm an environment (for example, by changing the sunlight needed for producers) or by benefiting an environment (for example, providing a new food source for predators). What should be done about an invasive species is to control it or eliminate it.

Question 35

What patterns do you detect in the two prairies? How might this information be helpful to scientists?

Answer 35

In this activity, the patterns we detect in the two prairies is that they both have 5 native species in sampling point 8 and 5 grasshoppers in sampling point 8. In prairie 1, the soil was mostly dry and in prairie 2, the soil was mostly medium dry. This information will be helpful to scientists because it will help them predict future patterns and give them more data to be able to make claims on things such as “about how many grasshoppers were in both prairies?”

Question 36

What patterns do you observe when you investigate your own environment?

Answer 36

When investigating our own environment, I observed that there always was grass, insects such as spiders, flowers and other plants, sticks, and acorns in almost all the transects.

Question 37

How do habitat requirements of organisms determine where a species will be found in nature?

Answer 37

Habitat requirements of organisms determine where a species will be found in nature because every type of species will be looking for what is suitable for them. For example, a bunny will be looking for an environment that has plants to feed on, a water source, and places easy to create shelter. These requirements would be necessary for the bunny to thrive and where it would be found in nature.

Question 38

Do zebra mussel populations change or stay the same in their native range?

Answer 38

In graph A, the zebra mussel populations did thrive but stayed stable at the same time in a lake near lake Miko, in graph B and graph C; the zebra mussel populations decreased in other lakes near their native range.

Question 39

What is an owl’s place and role in the food web?

Answer 39

An owl’s place and role in a food web is a tertiary consumer that only eats other animals such as rodents.

Question 40

How do matter and energy move in an ecosystem?

Answer 40

Matter moves through an ecosystem starting from the producers, and while each organism from the following levels consume the matter being passed on to one another, it will end up being a dead organism or waste. What happens to this waste is that decomposers break it down and release it to producers and this process starts over again. Energy moves through an ecosystem by photosynthesis that producers use from the sun and lets 10% of that energy be passed down to the next level of consumers. The remaining 90% is left as heat in the ecosystem and this continues until there is no more energy to be passed on.

Question 41

How do interactions with living or nonliving factors in ecosystems affect populations?

Answer 41

Interactions with living and nonliving factors in ecosystems affect populations because positive factors could increase some populations but decrease other populations. For example, when Nile Perch (a living factor) was introduced to Lake Victoria; it decreased the population of different types of cichlids; therefore increasing the population of algae because its main predator was cichlids. Another example is when water temperatures increase in a certain lake, the population of worms decreases because they thrive in warm temperatures.

Question 42

What is the role of decomposers in the cycling of matter in an ecosystem?

Answer 42

The role of decomposers in the cycling of matter in an ecosystem is breaking down dead matter (organisms) and waste from living organisms to transfer it into nutrients for producers and makes room for other organisms in an ecosystem.

Question 43

How does a new species affect the flow of energy and cycling of matter through ecosystem?

Answer 43

A new species affects the flow of energy and cycling of matter through an ecosystem by making some organisms decrease because it may be harmful to those organisms or make other organisms compete for food. FOr example, when a rattlesnake is introduced to an ecosystem where the coyote is the apex predator that consumes prairie chickens, it would be starting to compete with the coyote to eat the prairie chicken. Not only would this decrease the population of coyotes because they won’t have as much food, it will also decrease teh population of prairie chickens that are being consumed and increase insects since there won’t be much predators, and decrease the population of producers.

Question 44

How can abiotic disruptions (fire) affect the flow of energy and cycling of matter in an ecosystem?

Answer 44

Abiotic disruptions such as fire would affect the flow of energy and cycling of matter in an ecosystem by making the ecosystem basically restart by eliminating most organisms. The ashes from a fire end up being nutrients to plant roots underground that would start to grow. By time, primary consumers will come because they have their food source. Then, secondary consumers would join the form of the ecosystems and lastly, tertiary consumers will come. This rebuild of an ecosystem would start to thrive now that every organism is back in its proper role and natural environment.

Question 45

What do the scientific data tell you about how the Hudson River has changed after the introduction of the zebra mussel?

Answer 45

In some ways, scientific data tells us that the introduction of zebra mussels did not change the water temperatures because the graphs that we analyzed showed us that the trend that the water temperatures was following did not change after zebra mussels came into the ecosystem.

Question 46

How can human control or eliminate an invasive species?

Answer 46

Humans can control or eliminate an invasive species in various ways that include manual removal and biological control. For example, with zebra mussels; predation being used in a lake would help control zebra mussels from further affecting the ecosystem by consuming it and decreasing the population of zebra mussels.