eco quiz

• Atmosphere


  Layer of gases (hundreds of kilometres) surrounding Earth, moderates temperatures, prevents excessive heating and cooling
• Composition of atmosphere


  • 78% Nitrogen
  • 21% Oxygen
  • 1% Argon
• Lithosphere


  The Earth's solid outer layer, ranges in 50 km to 150 km in thickness, consists of rocks and minerals that make the Earth's solid landscapes
• Hydrosphere


  All of the Earth's water in solid, liquid and gas form
• Biosphere


  The zone around Earth where life can exist, found in the other spheres
• Biotic components


  • Living things
  • Their remains
  • Their waste
• Biotic components


  • Plants
  • Bacteria
  • Animals
  • Leaves
  • Feces
• Abiotic components


  Non-living components of an ecosystem
• Abiotic components


  • Air
  • Temperature
  • Rock
  • Water
  • Minerals
• Terrestrial ecosystem


  An ecosystem that is based mostly or totally on land
• Aquatic ecosystem


  An ecosystem that is based mostly or totally in water
• Sustainable ecosystem


  An ecosystem that is maintained through natural processes, depends on the balanced interactions between their components, can be affected by human activity
• Individual


  Single organism (a single deer)
• Population


  All the members of a species living in the same ecosystem (deer)
• Community


  The collection of populations of all species in an ecosystem
• Ecosystem


  An area that is made up of all the interacting biotic and abiotic parts of a certain place (may be terrestrial or aquatic)
• Photosynthesis


  6CO2 → 6H2O → C6H12O6 → 6O2
• Green chlorophyll in their leaves is necessary for photosynthesis
• Cellular Respiration


  C6H12O6 → 6O2 → 6CO2 → 6H2O → useable energy
• All living things including plants must convert the glucose into usable energy
• Food web


  Shows a web of interconnecting food chains and all of the feeding relationships and flow of energy in an ecosystem community
• Trophic levels


  Describe the position of an organism along a food chain
• Energy pyramid


  Based on energy available at each trophic level
• Pyramid of organisms


  Based on amount of organisms at each trophic level
• Trophic levels


  • Producers
  • Primary consumers
  • Secondary consumers
  • Tertiary consumers
• Producers


  Creates food energy from the sun through photosynthesis (e.g. grass)
• Primary consumer


  A herbivore or omnivore that consumes a producer (first) (e.g. a grasshopper)
• Secondary consumer


  A carnivore or omnivore that consumes a primary consumer (second) (e.g. snake)
• Tertiary consumer


  A carnivore or omnivore that consumes a secondary consumer (third) (e.g. hawk)
• Ecological niche


  Function of a species serves in its ecosystem, including what it eats, what eats it and how it behaves
• Ecological niche of a black bear

  • Feeds on tender plant parts, eats nuts, berries, small animals, hunted by humans, fed on by blood-feeding insects
• Excess fertilizers washed away by rain

  Ends up in lakes where it fertilizes the growth of algae, using up all the oxygen and killing marine life
• Deforestation


  Creates an excess of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
• Burning of fossil fuels

  Returns more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
• Green plants during photosynthesis

  Convert carbon into glucose
• Bottling water


  Once this water leaves its source, it could take millions of years to return
• Clearing plants to build roads, parking lots and buildings


  Water can't percolate through the soil into the groundwater and instead it remains on the surface which causes flash flooding