Topic 7 - Ecology

• What does Habitat mean?


  Place where an organism lives
• What is Population?


  All the organisms of one species living in a habitat
• What is a community?

  All the different populations that live together in an area
• What are biotic factors?

  Living factors of the environment e.g. food
• What are Abiotic factors?

  Non-living factors of the environment e.g. temperature
• What is an ecosystem?

  The interaction of a community of living organisms with the non-living parts of their environment.
• What do animals compete with each other for? (3)

  Food, mates and territory
• What do plants compete for? (4)

  Light, space, water and nutrients from soil
• What is interdependence?


  All species depending on other species in some way.
• What are structural adaptations?


  Features of an organism's body structure e.g. shape or color
• What are behavioral adaptations?

  The way an organism behaves or acts e.g. flapping ears to cool down.
• What are functional adaptations?

  Things that go on inside an organism's body that can be related to processes like reproduction & metabolism
• What are extremophiles?


  organisms that grow under extreme conditions
• What does a food chain show?

  the flow of energy as it passes from one organism to the next
• What is a producer?

  An organism that makes its own energy using sunlight.
• What is an example of a producer?

  Green plants, algae
• What do primary consumers feed on?

  producers
• What is a predator?

  an animal that hunts other animals
• What is a prey?

  an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food
• What does abundance mean?

  how many organisms there are
• What does distribution mean?

  where the organisms are
• What is sampling?


  A process of selecting subjects who are representative of the population being studied. This process may be random or non-random.
• what are the two ways of sampling.

  Quadrats and Transects
• What are quadrats?


  square frames that can be used to estimate population sizes
• What is a transect?

  lines used to help find out how organisms (like plants) are distributed across an area.
• How do you use a quadrat?

  1) Place multiple tape measures along the length and width of the field, forming a large grid.

  2) Use a random number generator to generate 10 pairs of random coordinates.

  3) Place quadrats at those coordinates and count how many dandelions are found in each quadrat.

  4) Calculate the mean number of dandelions per m2.

  5) Estimate the total population size using our mean number of dandelions per m2 and the total area of the field.
• How do you use a transect?

  A transect line (usually a tape measure) is laid out in a straight line between the lake and woodland.

  Quadrats are placed at regular intervals along the transect line.

  The abundance of dandelions is measured by counting the number of dandelions in each quadrat along the transect line, from the lake to the woodland.
• What happens in the water cycle?

  Water from lakes, rivers, oceans, and the soil, evaporates into water vapor, and rises into the atmosphere.

  Water can also evaporate from plants in a process called transpiration.

  As the water vapour accumulates it can condense to form clouds.

  Later, the water will fall as rain, which we call precipitation.

  The water will then seep into the soil, flow into rivers or lakes, and be taken up by plants.

  The whole cycle then repeats over and over.
• What happens in the carbon cycle?

  Carbon in atmosphere enters cycle by plants conducting photosynthesis.

  Carbon enters atmosphere by decomposition, respiration, combustion and volcanoes.

  Stored long term as fossil fuels in carbon sinks
• What is biodiversity?


  the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
• What is the atmosphere?

  the layer of gases that surrounds Earth
• What are greenhouse gases?

  carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor
• What is a GMO?

  genetically modified organism
• What is a genetically modified organism?

  A GMO is an organism whose genetic material has been altered through some genetic engineering technology or technique.
• What are examples of traits that GMOS have?


  Drought resistance

  Increased yield

  Herbicide tolerance

  Virus resistance

  Production of specific proteins (e.g. insulin)

  Flood resistance
• What is mycoprotein?


  Used to make high-protein meat substitutes for vegetarians

  Made from the fungus Fusarium - grown in aerobic conditions on glucose syrup (its food)

  The fungal biomass is harvested & purified to make the mycoprotein