STUDY GUIDE

Mt.SAC Biology 1

LAB11: Organisms interactions

  1. Introduction: Explain the different parts of a food chain (trophic levels)
  2. What is the difference between a carnivore and an omnivore?
  3. Introduction: What living component of the ecosystem is NOT part of a food chain? Give its name and explain its role
  4. Part 1: Natural Selection. Explain how we simulated our ecosystem, name all the components (all the predators, all the prey, the habitat used)
  5. Part 1: Natural Selection. Explain how we simulated reproduction for the preys
  6. Part 1: Natural Selection. Explain how the preadators’ efficiency was calculated
  7. Part 1: Natural Selection. What were the graphs showing when plotting the results at the end, what were your X and Y axes on each graph?
  8. Part 2: Food webs. Explain the difference between a food web and a food chain
  9. Part 2: Food webs. Name the producers, herbivores (1st consumers), and carnivores (2nd consumers) of the Aleutian islands ecosystem in the 1970’s for the two food chains given (open ocean and kelp beds)
  10. Part 2: Food webs. What organism was the keystone species in kelp beds? Explain why
  11. Part 2: Food webs. Explain what abiotic or physical factor determined a change in the ecosystem during the 90’s
  12. Part 2: Food webs. Explain the changes in both open ocean and kelp beds food chains as a result of your previous answer
  13. Video on predators’ roles in ecosystems: In the introduction part of the video, what was meant by “fragmentation”?
  14. Video on predators’ roles in ecosystems:In the introductions part of the video, why did the iguanas, monkeys, and ants become so destructive in their ecosystems?
  15. Video on predators’ roles in ecosystems: In the introduction part of the video, how were all the islands created in what the scientist called a “gigantic experiment”?
  16. Why did wolves disappear from Yellowstone?
  17. Why, specifically, did the aspen trees went down in numbers in the last 70 years or so?

Instructor: Jose Bava, Ph.D