Ecology Summative Test Review

Carnivore examples: wolf, tiger Plants are producers and is able to convert sunlight into stored energy called food; herbivores eat plants and are primary consumers; omnivores eat both plants and animals and are secondary consumers. Herbivore examples: DEER, COWS Producer examples: trees and tulips Consumer examples: deer, tiger, wolf, cow Arrows in food web represents the transfer of energy and matter Food web is a diagram showing the feeding relationships and the transfer of matter between organisms The sun is the source of energy for all organisms because it provides the energy needed for producers to make food.

Decomposers examples: bacteria, mushrooms, microorganisms. Decomposer use dead organisms for food like a dead tree limb. Tropical rain forest biome would have at least 200 cm of precipitation a year and include large woody vines, monkeys, sloths and boa constrictors; it also would have the largest variety of life forms. Estuary is an area where fresh water mixes with salt water. Georgia has four distinct seasons and organisms such as deer, oak trees, pine trees and foxes. This biome is a temperate deciduous forest. Habitat is a place where a member of a community lives and finds food.

Eagle and owl has a competitive relationship because they both eat the snake and rat. Organisms that obtain energy from the snake would be the owl or eagle. First level consumer would be a rat. When the rat population would decrease the grass population would increase. If the # of snakes increased the rats would decrease. If something destroyed the grass the rats would be the first to decrease. The producer in this food web is the grass. Decomposer would be the mushroom.

When classifying a biome, you look at the climate in the region. The order from least to most precipitation in biomes is: (Desert, tundra), (grasslands, taiga), temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest. Limiting Factors are things that restrict the growth of a population. Pioneer species are the first organisms to move into an ecosystem. Climax communities have stable stages of both plants and animals. If the mice population in an area increases noticeably in a few years then perhaps the mice’s main predator has been eliminated by human development.

Tick is an example of a parasite. Desert animal examples: kangaroo rat, snakes, lizards An increase in competition of food causes a decrease in the number of organisms that eat the same food. Lions in a pride who hunt together is an example of coperation. An example of mutualism is when a Clownfish live among sea anemones for protection and shelter. The sea anemone feeds on predators of the clown fish. Fertilizer helps plants make their food; grasshoppers eat plants; rats eat grasshpoppers; fox eats rats; fox dies and bacteria uses it for food and breaks it down for fertilizer for the plant. This is an example of cycling of nutrients in a community. Biotic means living and examples would be plants or animals.

Predation help prey populations by preventing overcrowding and starvation. Predators have relationships with prey; parasites have relationships with hosts. What would the above forest look like 20 years later when squirrels move into the area and gather acorns from one oak tree and hide them? Hermit crabs that live in shells that were abandoned by snails is an example of what type of relationship?__Commensalism______

Two populations with limited resources experience competition________. If a rabbit population has increased noticeably in the past ten years. What could be a hypothesis for this population growth? ___Main predator has been eliminated_____ What is most responsible for the decay of dead organisms? _micro-organisms_________ What environment would you expect the find the greatest number of different species? _Rain Forest____________ Bacteria nitrogen fixing bacteria is found on the _nodules__________ of plant roots. What is the definition of evaporation? _where droplets of liquid water absorb energy and change into a gas state________________