Ecology Review for test

Ecology review  What is ecology?  It is the study of the biosphere.  The biosphere is any place that supports life.

Ecology review  How is the biosphere organized?  The biosphere is broken down into biomes.  Biomes are areas with the same climate, geography, and organisms.  Each one can be explained by these 3 factors.

Ecology review  How are the organisms broken down?  Flora are producers and fauna are consumers.  Producers make energy and consumers eat other organisms for energy.  Decomposers return energy to the producers.

Ecology review  What are the levels of organization of biomes?  They are ecosystem, community, population, and species.  Each one gets more specific.

Ecology review  What are habitats and niches?  Habitats are where organisms live.  Niches are the roles organisms play.  Niches can be fundamental and realized.

Ecology review  What interacts in ecosystems?  Ecosystems are interaction of biotic and abiotic factors.  Biotic factors are living organisms.  Abiotic factors are non-living factors.

Ecology review  What is an energy pyramid?  An energy pyramid shows the flow of energy through trophic levels.  A pyramid shows a food chain, but can’t show the whole food web.  Only 10% is passed on (on average).

Ecology review  What is the role of producers in an ecosystem?  Producers are the base of all energy pyramids.  Producers rely on decomposers and nutrient cycles for their energy.

Ecology review  What are the roles of consumers in an ecosystem?  Consumers eat producers and help control populations.  Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores eat different organisms.  They also help return some biomass to the environment.  Biomass is all living organisms in the biosphere (or area specified).

Ecology review  What are decomposers?  Decomposers return nutrients to the ecosystem.  Detritivores eat the garbage of an ecosystem.

Ecology review  How is each type of organism (producer, consumer, decomposer) important to the ecosystem?  Producers are pyramid bases.  Consumers control populations.  Decomposers get rid of wastes and feed producers.

Ecology review  What types of symbiosis are there?  There are mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.  Each involves a close relationship between 2 organisms.

Ecology review  How do populations grow?  They are linear, exponential, and logistic.  Carrying capacity puts a limit on the size of the population.

Ecology review  What cycles are important for ecosystems?  Nitrogen cycle is important for plants.  Carbon cycle is important for all living organisms.  Water cycle is important for plants.  Other cycles return elements to ecosystems.

Ecology review  Where does photosynthesis come in?  Producers use it to start the energy pyramid.  Chemosynthesis is also used to start energy pyramids.

Ecology review  Where does cell respiration come in?  All organisms (even plants) use respiration to make use of energy from the sun or chemicals.

Ecology review  What is competition?  This happens when there are not enough resources and organisms “fight” for them.  They can be intraspecific and interspecific.

Ecology review  What is predation?  This is the act of a predator chasing its prey.

Ecology review  What are density dependent and density independent limiting factors?  These things help control populations.  They depend on the closeness of organisms (dependent) or effect any population equally (independent).