Ecology Unit Study Guide

1. What is a food web? Draw an example.

2. What do the arrows in a food web and a food chain represent?

3. Define the following AND give 3 examples of each:

Producer

Consumer

Herbivore

Carnivore

Omnivore

4. Why is sunlight important in ecosystems?

5. What would use a dead tree limb as a food source?

6. Define habitat.

7. What is the source of all energy?

8. Define and give an example of a competitive relationship.

Use this diagram to answer the next set of questions.

Use the diagram above to answer this set of questions:

9. List 2 competitive relationships from the diagram.

10. What would happen to the grass if the number of grasshoppers decreased?

11. What would happen to the mice if the number of foxes increased?

12. If a disease killed the grass, what would happen first?

13. List a predator/prey relationship from the diagram.

14. Label the diagram using the terms: omnivore, carnivore, herbivore, producer.

15. Make an energy pyramid using the organisms in the diagram. Label the 4 trophic levels.

16. What are limiting factors?

17. What are pioneer species? Provide 2 examples.

18. What are major characteristics of secondary succession communities?

19. Which level of the food web contains the greatest amount of available energy?

20. If a disease were to kill most of the rabbits in an area, predict how the snakes, deer, and mountain lions would be affected.

21. A food chain consists of both living and nonliving things. As energy moves through the chain, the amount available to each member of the chain decreases. Provide an example of a complete food chain?

22. Polar bears are very well adapted to life around the Arctic Ocean. Their white fur camouflages them in the snow. They can withstand freezing temperatures for a long time. They can swim and hunt in very cold

water. Is the distribution of polar bears limited by physical barriers, competition, or climate? Explain your answer.

Use the above picture to answer questions 23 & 24

23. What would happen if another mouse-eating predator were introduced into this ecosystem?

24. Which organism could be at this beginning of a food chain?

25. Define symbiosis (symbiotic relationships).

Define and provide an example of each:

26. Mutualism:

Ex.

27. Parasitism:

Ex.

28. Commensalism:

Ex.

29. Adaptation:

Ex.

30. Provide 2 examples of conditions that could cause a decrease in the number of prairie dogs in a population?