ecology study guide

    1) In the energy transfer flow chart, what is the missing trophic level?       

Producers---→ Primary consumer ---→ (Secondary Consumer) ---→ Tertiary consumer ---→ decomposers

2) As you go up an energy pyramid, energy (decreases)

3) How much energy (in %) is absorbed by each trophic level in relation to the 

trophic level below it (10% of the energy gets passed onto the next tropic level, this is called the 10% rule__)

4) List 3 autotrophs. (_Examples: tree, grass, shrubs_)

5) If an animal eats a plant, what is the name of its trophic level? (primary consumer)

6) How does a parasitic relationship differ from predator/prey relationship? ( In a parasitic relationship, the parasite feeds on its host for sometime before it may kill it

In a predator/prey relationship, the predator eats its prey immediately (kills it)

7) Why would plants only live in the top zone of an ocean? (They need sunlight to make their own food (carry out photosynthesis)

8) What is a habitat? (Specific environment in which an organism lives out its life span)

9) With whom does competition occur between in an ecosystem? (Competition occurs between the same species or different species of organisms in an ecosystem. Intraspecific competition is between members of the same species, interspecific is between members of different species.)

10) What is a decomposer's role in energy transfer? (To breakdown dead organisms complex compounds and return nutrients back to soil)

11) List the ecological levels of organization in order from most specific to the broadest. ( Individual/organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere). 

12) What is ecology? ( Ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms with the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts of the environment)

13) What are the three types of symbiosis? ( 1. Commensalism

2. Parasitism

3. Mutualism

14) Explain each type of symbiosis and give an example of each one. 

 1. Commensalism - one species benefits and the other is neither harmed or helped, ex: tree frog on leaves

2. Parasitism: one species benefits and other is harmed, ex: tick on a dog)

3. Mutualistic: Both species benefit (bee pollinating flowers)

15) What is the difference between a food web and a food chain? (A food chain is a single pathway of energy transfer, a food web is an interconnecting network of food chains)

16) Explain the difference between habitat and niche. (Habitat is an organism's natural address where it lives out its life, niche is the functional role or job it carries out in its community). 

17) Explain what a consumer is. Use as many vocabulary words as you can. (A consumer is an organism that needs to take in food from the outside. It cannot make its own food. Consumers can be herbivores (eat only producers/plants); carnivores (eat only animals) or omnivores (eat both plants and animals)

18) Which trophic level is the foundation of all food chains? (The producers - autotrophs)

19) List all the different types of consumers and give an example of an organism that belongs to each group.

1. Herbivore - Primary consumers that eat only plants, are the prey animals. Examples: cow, deer

2. Carnivore - Secondary consumers, eat only meat. Examples: lion, tiger

3. Omnivore - Eat both plants and animals, can be primary through quaternary consumers. Example: bears, humans

4. Scavengers - Feed on leftover dead organisms. Example: vulture, hyena

5. Detritivores - feed on detritus (decomposing organic matter)  Example: earthworms

6. Decomposers - breakdown complex organic compounds and return nutrients to soil. Example: bacteria, fungus.

20) In what direction does energy flow in a food chain?(Flows from producer to consumer to decomposer_)

21) What is the difference between biotic and abiotic? List 3 examples of each.(Biotic: all living parts of an ecosystem (plants, animals, bacteria) Abiotic: all the non-living parts of an ecosystem (air, temperature, water).

22) Which trophic level is found in smaller numbers in an energy pyramid?( There are fewer organisms at the 3 & 4 level (tertiary and quaternary trophic levels because there is less energy to sustain life)

23) Do parasites kill their host right away? Why or why not?(No, they do not kill their host right away because they need the host organism to feed on when its alive)

24) What is an ecosystem?(A biological community of interacting organisms (biotic factors) and their nonliving components (abiotic factors) of their environment)

25) What is a community?(Several interacting populations that inhabit a common environment)