IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Use biology textbook (Campbell) or classroom texts (Schraer & Stoltze) to find answers to the following questions on the basic principles of ecology. Work in pairs or teams of 3. Download this document from Schoolwires and TYPE final team answers. Submit one copy with all team members’ names, but each member must have a copy for the OPEN-NOTE test, to follow class discussion . This document DUE ______

Chapter 34: The Biosphere

1. List 4 abiotic factors and 3 biotic factors that make up an ecosystem.

2. What physical factors determine the climate in a region?

How do climate and abiotic factors affect distribution of organisms?

3. List and define the major terrestrial biomes from tropics to pole. What is the taiga?

4. What major features distinguish one biome from another?

5. List and define the major marine biomes, from shoreline to deep ocean

Chapter 36: Population Dynamics

6. What are some limiting factors that control population size?

7. What is carrying capacity?

What happens when a population reaches its carrying capacity in a particular environment?

  1. How do density-dependent limiting factors differ from density-independent? Give an example of each.
  1. What often happens when an organism is introduced into a new environment with fewer limiting factors?
  1. What is the Exponential Growth Model?

Give an example of an organism that would follow this growth pattern.

  1. What is the Logistic Growth Model?

Chapter 37: Communities and Ecosystems

  1. What is an ecological niche?

How does an organism’s niche and competition among organisms shape communities?

  1. Explain how warning coloration, camouflage, and mimicry are adaptive advantages.

14. Fill in the table below to distinguish 3 kinds of symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

Symbiotic Relationship / Definition / Example
Mutualism
Commensalism
Parasitism
  1. What is ecological succession? How do earlier communities change the environment making it more suitable for later organisms?
  1. What is a trophic level? What is meant by primary production?

What limits the total number of trophic levels in an ecosystem?

How much energy is passed to each succeeding level?

  1. Describe a food web. What is a keystone species?
  1. How does the way that chemicals move through the biosphere differ from the way energy flows?
  1. List four elements that cycle between living and nonliving parts of the biosphere

Chapter 38: Conservation Biology

  1. Why does pollution affect organisms at the top of the food chain more than those at lower trophic levels (biomagnification)?
  1. What is an algal bloom and why are they harmful? What is a red tide? What is eutrophication?
  1. Describe some physical and biological evidence for global climate change
  1. Explain how habitat loss and introduced species are major threats to biodiversity. Give an example of each.