| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is the ultimate source of all energy on earth? | The sun |
| What is matter? | Anything that has mass and takes up space |
| Compare and contrast biotic and abiotic | biotic is the living parts of the ecosystem and abiotic is the non-living |
| What are the nutrient cycles we studied? | Water, carbon/oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus |
| Complete the sequence of environmental organization from simple to most complex: | individual, population, community, ecosystem/biomes, and biosphere |
| What are autotrophs? | Producers that make their own energy, mostly from the sun |
| What is photosynthesis? | The biochemical process that takes smaller inorganic molecules and creates large organic molecules for energy storage |
| What are heterotrophs? | Organisms that must get their food by consuming other organisms |
| What are herbivores? | Organisms that eat only plants |
| What are carnivores? | Organisms that eat only other heterotrophs |
| What are omnivores? | Organisms that eat both plants and animals |
| What are scavengers? | Scavengers that eat dead matter |
| Why are decomposers important? | They break down organic molecules, making nutrients re-available |
| What is a food chain and what does the arrow tell you? | A sequence of who eats who; the arrow points towards higher order consumer |
| What is a food web and what are the levels of consumers? | A complex combination of food chains showing multiple consumers; first level who are herbivores, secondary level are carnivores and omnivores, tertiary consumers who are tope carnivores; The further from the producer the higher the level of consumer |
| What is an energy pyramid? | A diagram that shows the amount of energy in each level of the ecosystem |
| What is a niche? | The role an organism plays in the ecosystem |
| What is the habitat? | The place where the organism lives/works in the ecosystem |
| What are adaptations? | Gradual changes that organisms have made to survive in their ecosystem |
| What is predation? | What do we call the two organisms? the predator consumes the prey |
| What are the three types of symbiotic relationships? Define each | Mutualism where both benefit, commensalism where one benefits and the other is not harmed, parasitic where the parasite harms the host (but doesn’t kill it) |
