Ecology unit test study guide

1. Ecology unit test study guide By: Sarah

2. What is ecology? • The study of how different organisms interact with one another

3. Abiotic and biotic factors • Abiotic: • Nonliving things that affect an environment • Ex: water, temperature, sunlight, gravity, etc. • Biotic • Living things that affect an environment • Ex: animals, plants decomposers, etc.

4. The five levels of organization in an environment • Individual: a single organism • Population: a group of the same organism • Community: many populations that interact together • Ecosystem: all of the biotic and abiotic factors of an environment • Biosphere: the Earth is the only known biosphere

5. Producer, consumer, decomposer, and omnivore • A producer creates it’s own food via photosynthesis • A consumer has to get it’s food by eating other organisms • A decomposer breaks down decaying things to produce energy • An omnivore eats both meat and plants

6. Symbiotic relationships • Mutualism: in this relationships, both organisms benefit • Commensalism: one organism benefits while the other is unaffected • Parasitism: In parasitism one organism benefits while the other is harmed. The organism being harmed is the host and the benefiting organism is the parasite

7. Food webs and food chains • Food Webs show the flow of energy between organisms • Food Chains show the different levels of organisms

8. How does energy flow in a food chain and a food web? • The direction that the arrow is pointing shows who is getting eaten by whom • So in the bellow picture, the grass is getting eaten by the deer

9. competition • All living things need; food, water, air, and living space • When an area does not have enough of one of these things it becomes a limiting factor of the population • The amount of organisms that an area can support is known as the carrying capacity

10. Prey and predator • prey: an organism that is eaten by another organism • Predator: an organism that eats other organisms • A predator may still be prey even if it eats other organisms

11. Pollution and acid rain • Pollution is an unwanted change in the environment caused by substances such as wastes or forms of energy like radiation • Garbage: trash goes into landfills around the world, but hazardous wastes can catch on fire, burn through metal, explode or make people sick • Chemicals: some chemicals are used to make things like plastics and preserved foods, but others pollute the air and water • High-Powered Wastes: some nuclear power plants give off radio wastes that give off radiation • Gases: some gases such as carbon dioxide are causing global warming and are harmful to us • Noise: pollutants affect the senses and noise is just annoying and distracting • Acid Rain is created when harmful chemicals enter the atmosphere and are condensed into clouds

12. Carbon cycle • The carbon cycle is the exchange of carbon between the environment and living things • Respiration, combustion, and decomposition all release carbon into the atmosphere • Animals get carbon when they eat plants because plants use carbon in photosynthesis

13. Nitrogen cycle • The Nitrogen cycle is the movement of Nitrogen between the environment and living things • Most organisms cannot take in nitrogen directly • Bacteria convert nitrogen into a substance that can be used by plants in a process called nitrogen fixation

14. Water cycle • Water evaporates into the air (liquid>gas) • The water vapor then condenses (gas>liquid) • Once the clouds become heavy enough they precipitate (rain, snow, sleet, or hail) • The water my become runoff and flow back into the source or flow into pores in the ground as groundwater • Trees and other plants give off water in transpiration

15. Primary succession • Primary succession is when a community starts in an area where no other organisms had previously lived • A pioneer species is this first species in an area

16. Secondary succession • Sometimes an existing community is destroyed, but it may regrow during secondary succession

17. Types of biomes • Tundra: short growing season, freezing, little precipitation • Temperate Deciduous Forest: cool rainy areas with trees that loose their leaves in Fall • Taiga: cold woodland or forest, largest biome on Earth • Rainforest: dense, warm, wet forests • Desert: hot, little rainfall, little plant and animal life • Arctic: cold, windy, often snowy, located around the north pole • Antarctic: coldest biome on Earth, found around the south pole • Freshwater Marsh: open, low-lying areas, normally located near streams, rivers and lakes • Swamp: heavily forested, low-oxygen water • Ocean: diverse web of life • Grassland: grassy, windy, partly dry • Savanna: hot, seasonally dry with scattered trees • Prairie: temperate grassland that gets hot in summer and cool in winter

18. conservation • Reduce: to reduce is to use less of something. For example, people can reduce the amount of plastic bags they use by converting to cloth bags • Reuse: to reuse is to use something again. For example, we reuse clothing when we wear hand-me-downs • Recycle: recycling is when you change an object into another new thing. Did you know that there are pants that can be made out of plastic bottles which are thrown away every day?

19. Habitats and habitat destruction • People need many resources such as food and building materials • Land is cleared for these items • The organisms in this area may loose the resources they need or their habitats • An organisms habitat is where it lives

20. Renewable and nonrenewable resources • Renewable resources can be replaced • (Food, algae, agricultural products, etc.) • Nonrenewable resources cannot be replaced • Fossil fuels, trees, etc.

21. Fossil fuels • Fossil Fuels: formed from the remains of plants and animals when put under pressure • Ex: coal, oil, natural gas, etc.

22. Exotic species • An organism that makes a home for itself outside of his native home • Exotic species may compete with the native species and become pests

23. Global warming • The amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is increasing • This causes the atmosphere to retain heat • This gradual increase in temperature is called global warming • In the last century global temperatures have increased by one degree Fahrenheit • This increase in temperature is melting the polar ice caps and causing floods

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