UPCAT REVIEWER: GENERAL SCIENCE (ECOLOGY)

Ecosystem

• refers to the environment where living and non-living components exist and interact with each other

Biosphere

• layer of the earth that supports all life forms.

Biotic

• living component of an ecosystem

Abiotic

• non-living component of an ecosystem

Producers

• primary source of food in the ecosystem.

• These are composed of the green plants that can produce their own food.

Consumers

• composed the animals that depend on green plants for food.

• Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore.

Decomposers

• final consumers who feed on decaying or dead organic matters.

Carbon cycle
Oxygen cycle
Nitrogen cycle
Phosphorus cycle
Water cycle

The cycling of nutrients: (C O N P W)

Carbon cycle

• moves between the atmosphere, organisms, oceans, and soil.

• Involves photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and combustion.

• Basis of life molecules, climate regulation.

Oxygen cycle

• Movement of _ through photosynthesis and respiration.

• Plants produce _, animals use it to breathe.

• Needed for respiration.

Nitrogen cycle

• is converted between different forms so organisms can use it.

• Involves _ fixation, nitrification, assimilation, ammonification, and denitrification.

• Needed for proteins and DNA.

Phosphorus cycle

• moves through rocks, soil, water, and organisms.

• No atmospheric component — mostly stays in the ground or water.

• Needed for bones, teeth, DNA, and energy (ATP)

Water cycle

• Movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration.

• Maintains water supply for living things.

• Supports all life, controls temperature.

Symbiosis

• refers to any intimate or close association of two organism of different species.

Mutualism
Commensalism
Parasitism

Types of symbiosis:

Mutualism

• association between two or more species in which all derived benefits in feeding or in some other way.

• Both organism benefits.

Commensalism

• co-action in which two or more species are mutually associated in activities centering on food; one organism is benefited while the others are neither benefited nor harmed.

Parasitism

• relation between two or more species wherein the parasites benefit at the expense of the hosts.

• One benefits; the other is harmed.

Global
Landscape
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organismal
Molecular

Types of Ecology: (G L E C P O M)

Global ecology

Landscape ecology

• studies how energy, animals, and materials move between ecosystems. It also looks at how humans affect the land and change the way ecosystems work.

Ecosystem ecology

• looks at both living and non-living parts of an environment and how they interact. It helps us understand how ecosystems work and stay balanced.

Community ecology

• studies how different species living together interact and affect each other in a shared area.

Population ecology

• studies groups of the same species living in one place. It looks at how the size of a population changes over time and what affects its growth or decline, like births, deaths, immigration, and emigration.

Organismal ecology

• studies how a single organism behaves and adapts to its environment. It looks at how the organism interacts with living things (like other animals) and non-living things (like temperature or water).

Molecular ecology

• studies how DNA and proteins affect how organisms live and interact with their environment. It focuses on the smallest level—inside cells—where proteins made from DNA help organisms grow, survive, and respond to the world around them.

Ecology

• is a branch of science, including human science, population, community, ecosystem and biosphere. _ is the study of organisms, the environment and how the organisms interact with each other and their environment.