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Studyguide - Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Communities
4.1 Climate
1. What’s the difference between climate and weather?
2. What factors determine global climate?
3. What happens to light that strikes Earth’s surface? Can you draw/label a diagram?
4. How would you explain the greenhouse effect?
5. What are the greenhouse gases, and why are they important?
6. How does the tilt of the Earth affect the intensity of the solar energy received in each
climate zone?
7. How does latitude affect how much solar energy is received?
8. What are the 3 climate zones and how would you characterize the climate of each?
9. What are the 2 ways that heat and moisture are transported in the biosphere?
4.2 Niches and Community Interactions
10. What is included in an organism’s niche?
11. What is tolerance?
12. What is habitat?
13. How does tolerance influence an organism’s habitat?
14. What is the difference between a habitat and a niche?
15. What are examples of resources?
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16. Can you give examples of physical (abiotic) and biological (biotic) aspects/factors of
an organism’s niche?
17. How does competition affect and shape communities?
18. What is the competitive exclusion principle? Can you give an example?
19. What is an example of species dividing resources instead of competing for them?
20. What is predation?
21. What is herbivory?
22. How do predation and herbivory affect and shape communities?
23. How would you describe a keystone species? Can you give an example?
24. What does symbiosis mean?
25. What are the 3 types of symbiotic relationships? Explain each relationship. Give at
least one example of each.
26. What is the difference between a parasite and a predator?
4.3 Succession
27. Describe ecological succession
28. What are the differences and similarities between primary and secondary succession?
29. Can you give examples of events that would require an ecosystem to undergo primary
succession?
30. Can you give examples of events that would require an ecosystem to undergo
secondary succession?
31. Are there situations in which an ecosystem may never fully recover from a
disturbance?
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32. Why are the initial stages of primary succession largely influenced by chance?
33. What is a pioneer species? Can you give an example?
4.4 Biomes
34. What are the main biotic and abiotic factors that are used to characterize biomes?
35. What is a canopy, and what is an understory? In which biome would you find these?
36. Do you know the characteristics of deciduous and coniferous trees?
37. Do you know the general climate and soil type of each biome?
38. How are the animals and plants associated with each biome adapted to the climate of
that biome? Can you give examples?
39. Which biome has permafrost?
40. Which biomes have the most precipitation? The least precipitation?
41. Which biome is also known as a “taiga”?
42. What major land areas are not easily classified into a major biome?
4.5 Aquatic Ecosystems
43. What four main factors affect what life is found in an aquatic ecosystem?
44. What kinds of organisms are called “benthos”? Where can they be found?
Freshwater Ecosystems
45. What are the 3 major categories of freshwater ecosystems?
46. How is a wetland different from a lake or a pond?
47. What type of freshwater ecosystem originates from underground sources in
mountains or hills?
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48. Why is there such little plant life at the source of rivers and streams?
49. How are freshwater wetlands beneficial?
Estuaries
50. Where are estuaries found?
51. Why are estuaries important ecologically and commercially?
52. What is unique about the amount of biomass and number of species found in an
estuary?
53. What is unique about a mangrove swamp?
Marine Ecosystems
54. How are organisms that live in the intertidal zone adapted to their environment?
55. What are examples of organisms that are adapted to living in the intertidal zone?
56. Where does most photosynthetic activity on Earth occur?
57. The zones of marine ecosystems are divided based on what factors?
58. What is the basis of the food web for organisms in the aphotic open ocean zone?
59. What characteristics differentiate the photic zone from the aphotic zone?
60. Why is the coastal ocean zone able to support so much life?
61. + or O More than 90% of the world’s ocean area is considered open ocean.
62. + or O Zooplankton can be found in the aphotic, benthic zone of the open ocean.
63. What are each of the zones of a marine ecosystem, and how do you tell them apart?
64. In which zone of a marine ecosystem would you find kelp forests and coral reefs?
65. Where would you find chemosynthetic organisms?
66. How would organisms in the photic open ocean be different from organisms in the
aphotic open ocean?