Download Ecology Unit Test Study Guide

Ecology Unit Test Study Guide
1.
How do plants make their own food? How is this different from animals?
Plants produce their own food using carbon dioxide, water and sunlight (photosynthesis). This is different than
animals because animals must consume either a producer or other animal.
2. What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem are the living organisms in their environment
3. Why are producers important to the world’s ecosystems?
Producers convert the suns energy into energy stored as food
4. What is the difference between an observation and an inference?
An observation is something that you actually see/observe happening. An inference is when you are making
assumptions based on observations you have made.
5. What does a Food Web show?
A food Web shows feeding relationships in an ecosystem; the arrows in a food web show the flow of energy
through that ecosystem.
6. What is a consumer?
A consumer is an organism that gets its energy by eating another animal or a plant (producer)
7. What is a decomposer?
A decomposer is an organism that gets its energy by breaking down dead or decaying material
8. All energy on Earth comes from where?
The Sun
9. What do plants need for photosynthesis to occur?
Water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight
10. What is a carrying capacity?
Carrying capacity is the largest population size that the environment can support
11. How do you recognize carrying capacity on a line graph?
Carrying capacity on a graph is represented by a straight horizontal line
12. What types of things can affect carrying capacity?
Introduced species, new predator or prey, competition, change in weather, amount of available food, etc
13. What is an introduced species?
An introduced species is a species that is located to a new environment where it previously did not live
14. How can an introduced species affect populations already living in an ecosystem?
It can increase competition, cause populations to fluctuate, change carrying capacity, etc.
15. How is a population defined?
A population is the number of one specific species living in a given ecosystem
16. What types of things can cause a population to decrease?
Lack of food, water, shelter, mates
17. What is a trade-off?
A trade-off is a consequence to a given decision. For example, if I choose to trade my lunch money for a pencil
that I really wanted, then I get the pencil and my tradeoff is that I don’t have any money to eat lunch.
18. Create a line graph for the following data:
Year
Fish Population
1
6,000
2
4,500
3
3,000
4
1,500
5
4,500
6
5,000
7
6,500
8
1,000
9
2,500
10
3,000