Name Date Period
Honors Envi Sci: Chapter 5 Notesheet – HOW ECOSYSTEMS WORK
LESSON 1 – WHAT IS ECOLOGY?
1. Define ecology.
2. Distinguish between biotic and abiotic factors. Give two examples of each.
3. Why is ecology considered an interdisciplinary science?
4. Define species.
5. Rank the levels of ecological organization from most to least inclusive.
6. Distinguish between an ecosystem and community.
LESSON 2 – THE FLOW OF ENERGY THROUGH ECOSYSTEMS
7. Distinguish between potential and kinetic energy. Give an ecological example of each.
8. Explain the first law of thermodynamics by using the example of energy transfers in photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
9. Where does excess energy go as energy is transformed? Can it be used biologically?
10. What is entropy?
11. What happens to entropy over time? How does this explain the efficiency of energy transformations?
12. How are organisms typically classified in an ecosystem? List the three categories and a brief description of each.
13. What is the difference between a primary and secondary consumer? What alternate name can be used for each?
14. Distinguish between a detritus feeder and a decomposer. Give an example of each.
15. What do the arrows in a food chain point to? What does the arrow represent?
16. Define trophic level. What organisms always make up the first trophic level?
17. Distinguish between a food chain and a food web.
18. What does it mean to say that the flow of energy in an ecosystem is linear?
19. Why are most food chains fairly short?
20. Why is a pyramid of energy larger at the base and smaller at the top?
21. Define GPP and NPP. Distinguish between the two.
22. Why are tropical rainforests considered the most productive terrestrial ecosystem?
LESSON 3 – THE CYCLING OF MATTER IN ECOSYSTEMS
23. How is the flow of matter in an ecosystem different than the flow of energy?
CARBON CYCLE
24. Why is carbon important to humans?
25. Name three compounds in which carbon can cycle in an environment.
26. Name two ways carbon is removed from the atmosphere. In addition to the process that removes the carbon, name the starting form of carbon, and the resulting form of carbon.
27. Name two ways carbon is returned to the atmosphere. In addition to the process that removes the carbon, name the starting form of carbon, and the resulting form of carbon.
28. How and where is limestone formed?
WATER CYCLE
29. Name two ways water can enter the atmosphere.
30. Name two ways humans are affecting the water cycle.
NITROGEN CYCLE
31. Why is nitrogen important to living things?
32. Why is atmospheric nitrogen (which is abundant) not able to be used for the previous question?
33. What organism is critical to most steps in converting nitrogen from one form to another?
34. How do plants get their needed nitrogen? Animals? In what form is it in?
35. How does nitrogen get returned to the atmosphere?
36. Name two ways humans are affecting the nitrogen cycle.
SULFUR CYCLE
37. Where is the bulk of sulfur found?
38. How does sulfur enter the atmosphere?
39. Why is sulfur important to living things?
40. How do plants get their necessary sulfur? Animals?
41. How are humans affecting the sulfur cycle?
PHOSPHORUS CYCLE
42. How does phosphorus enter the soil?
43. How do plants get their necessary phosphorus? Animals?
44. Why is phosphorus important to living things?
45. Name two ways humans are affecting the phosphorus cycle.
LESSON 4 – ECOLOGICAL NICHES
46. What does an organism’s “niche” take into consideration?
47. Distinguish between fundamental and realized niches. What determines which niche an organism will use (practically)?
48. Define resource partitioning. Give an example of resource partitioning.
LESSON 5 – INTERACTIONS AMONG ORGANISMS
49. What are the three ways organism can interact within an environment? Define each.
50. Define symbiosis.
51. List and define the three types of symbiosis. Give an example of each.
52. Define coevolution. How is it related to symbiosis?
53. Why will a parasite never try to kill its host?
54. What does it mean to say predation has resulted in an “arms race”?
55. List two adaptations predators have developed.
56. List two adaptations prey have developed.
57. Distinguish between interspecific and intraspecific competition.
58. What is a keystone species? Give an example.