Benchmark 1 Review

Environmental Science

  • Study of human interactions between organisms with their physical environment
  • Abiotic Factors: water temperature, dissolved oxygen
  • Biotic Factors: sea anemones, algae, fish
  • Ecosystem: living organisms and abiotic factors together (ocean)
  • Niche: JOB (consumer)
  • Community: populations interacting in an area (sea urchins and starfish)

Scientific Method

  • Reading data to form conclusions
  • Reading graphs (dependent variable on Y axis…what is being measured)
  • Bias (teacher tells you what is going to happen)

Food Chains

  • Producers (make their own food from the sun…phytoplankton)
  • Producers à Herbivores à Carnivores
  • Producers à Primary Consumers à Secondary Consumers à Tertiary Consumers
  • algae à insect à frog à snake à fish
  • Consumers (must eat other organisms for energy)
  • Scavengers (eat dead/decaying organisms…blue crab)
  • 2 steps = support the most people
  • You are a secondary consumer when you eat chicken or steak!

Food Webs

  • Show the flow of energy through an ecosystem
  • Arrows show the direction of energy moving through the web
  • Overhunting herbivores negatively affects carnivores
  • Predation (animals eating other animals)
  • Producers at the bottom (algae, phytoplankton, plants)

Ecological Pyramids

  • Biomass Pyramid (biomass is smaller at each higher trophic level)
  • Ecological Pyramid: total biomass of producers is more than that of consumers
  • Bottom of the pyramid contains the greatest energy (Producers)
  • If the top carnivore is overhunted, the population directly beneath will increase as a direct result
  • Producers are Level 1
  • Herbivores/Primary Consumers are Level 2
  • Carnivores start at Level 3

Photosynthesis

  • Solar Energy transformed into chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates
  • carbon dioxide + water + light à glucose + oxygen
  • Ultimate source of energy = SUN
  • Results in oxygen production
  • The final products of photosynthesis are the starting reactants for cellular respiration

Cellular Respiration

  • sugar + oxygen à carbon dioxide + water + energy
  • process used to create carbon dioxide

Symbiotic Relationships

  • Mutualism: coral and algae
  • Commensalism: clown fish and sea anemone, cattle egrets and herbivores
  • Parasitism: parasite/host: mistletoe vines on trees, heartworms in dogs
  • Predation: predator hunts the prey

Competition

  • Intraspecific: same species fighting over territory, mates, food (2 white tail deer fighting over territory)
  • Interspecific: different species fighting over territory or food (bear and human fighting fighting for fish)