1. food and drink

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Ecology Unit Test Practice KEY
Part 1: Vocabulary – Fill in the blanks with the terms below.
Abiotic factor
Biotic factor
Chemosynthesis
Consumers
Decomposers
Ecology
Food chain
1. All living factors in an ecosystem (plants, animals, etc.)
BIOTIC FACTOR
2. All nonliving factors such as climate and temperature.
ABIOTIC FACTOR
3. The study of how organisms interact with each other and
their environment. ECOLOGY
4. Autotrophic organisms that make their own food from
inorganic substances. PRODUCERS
5. Heterotrophic organisms that must consume other
organisms for energy. CONSUMERS
Food web
Photosynthesis
Producers
Trophic level
6. Organisms that obtain energy from the remains of other
organisms. DECOMPOSERS
7. Describes plants because they make food from sunlight.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS OR PRODUCERS
9. Feeding relationships between individual organisms.
FOOD CHAIN
10. Mass of interconnecting food chains. FOOD WEB
10. Each step in a food chain or web that shows the feeding
relationship between organisms. TROPHIC LEVEL
Define each level of organization to the right. Then, label four of the levels in the diagram on the left.
1. Species ORGANISM– single living thing
2.
Population – # of individuals of the same species in the
same place at the same time
3.
Community – all of the different populations living in a
given area and time
4.
Ecosystem – all of the communities (biotic) and all of the
physical factors (abiotic in an area)
5.
Biome – land-based global communities of organisms
6.
Biosphere – all of the areas on Earth where organisms live
Part 2: Food Chains and Food Webs
1. List all of the producers. grasses,
trees
2. List the primary consumers.
grasshoppers
3. List the higher level consumers.
frog, snake, hawk
4. What is the top consumer? hawk
5. What begins the flow of energy in
the picture? sunlight
6. Using the food web on the previous page, describe what would happen to each of the other organisms in the
following situations…(be specific)
a. If the grasses were all eaten by the grasshoppers- there would be no more producers, so all the organisms that
depended on the producers (everything) would eventually die if they couldn’t find another food source
b. If the hawks were all killed or captured by humans- the population of whatever the hawk fed on would
increase, and the population of whatever that fed would decrease
c. If all of the frogs died because of the polluted water- the grasshopper population would increase and the grass
population would decrease
Part 3: Ecological Pyramids:
Read the information and then use the diagrams below to answer the questions that follow.
When producers convert the sun’s energy into food energy, they use some of it for daily functions, store some, and use
some to build new plant tissue. When a herbivore, such as a cow, eats the plant, does the cow get 100% of the plant’s
energy? Will one plant, such as alfalfa, support one cow? Of course not! Much of the plant is of no use to the cow.
A single cow may need millions of plants in order to survive. The small amount of usable energy in each plant is then
used to support the cow’s daily activities. A very small fraction of the energy is stored, or used to make “more cow”.
As you can see, the amount of energy available to any member of a food web decreases as you go higher and higher
into the chains of the web. The same is true for numbers and mass of organisms. This concept is often shown as a
pyramid of energy, mass, or numbers. Use the chart below to answer the questions that follow.
ORGANISM
Young human
cow
Alfalfa plant
1.
NUMBERS
1
4
20 million
MASS
50 kg
1,000 kg
8,000 kg
AVAILABLE ENERGY
.06%
7.00%
100%
Fill in the pyramids so that the three organisms are placed in their correct levels, then answer the questions that follow.
a. What is the source of energy for all of the ecological pyramids above? sunlight
b. In general, what kind of organism makes up the base of any ecological pyramid? producers
c. How is the energy loss from one trophic level to the next reflected in the pyramid of numbers above?
as a decrease in numbers
d. Suppose an ecosystem has a greater number of individual herbivores than individual producers. How would this
affect the shape of the ecosystem’s pyramid of numbers?
The actual shape of the pyramid would look different in that level two of the pyramid would look larger than level
one.
e.
In the pyramid of energy, why do different trophic levels have different amounts of energy available?
Because only 10% of that energy is transferred to the next level as described by the 10% rule.
f. Which trophic level contains the most available energy? level 1
g. If trophic level 1 contains 10,000 kcal of energy, how much will transfer to level 3?
10% of 10000 would transfer to level 2 = 1000 kcal, then 10% of 1000 would transfer to level 3 = 100 kcal
Part 4: Symbiosis Directions: Use the word bank to match the definition or description to the statement. Words
may be used more than once.
Symbiosis
Niche
Resource
Competition
Mutualism
Biotic factors
Parasitism
Abiotic factors
Commensalism
Predator
Prey
Predation
BIOTIC FACTORS
1. Living organisms within an ecosystem
ABIOTIC FACTORS
2. Physical (nonliving) factors that shape an ecosystem
NICHE
3. An organism’s role (what it eats and where it reproduces) in an ecosystem
COMPETITION
4. Results when organisms of the same or different species attempt to use a resource
(food, water, shelter, etc.)
RESOURCE
5. Anything that is necessity for life: food, water, nesting site, sunlight; etc.
PREDATION
6. An interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism
PREY
7. Organism that is captured or eaten
PREDATOR
8. Organisms that kills and eats the other organism
PREY
9. Organism that is killed and eaten by another organism
SYMBIOSIS
10. Any relationship in which two species live closely together
MUTUALISM
11. Type of symbiosis in which both organisms benefit from the relationship
COMMENSALISM
12. Type of symbiosis in which one organism benefits and the second on is neither
harmed nor helped.
PARASITISM
13. Type of symbiosis in which one organism benefits and the other organism is harmed
PREDATOR
14. A wolf captures a deer. The wolf is the:
PREY
15. A lion captures a zebra. The zebra is the:
PARASITISM
16. A tick sucking the blood of a dog
COMMENSALISM
17. A bird builds a nest in a tree
MUTUALISM
18. A yucca moth pollinates a yucca plant. The yucca moth cannot live without the yucca
plant and the yucca plant cannot live without the yucca moth.
NICHE
19. An owl is active and hunts at night; it builds its nest in trees
COMMENSALISM
20. Barnacles attach themselves to a whale’s skin. The whale is not harmed, but the
barnacle gets a constant supply of food from the moving water.
PARASITISM
21. A tapeworm in the intestine of a dog; the tapeworm gets nutrients from the dog and
the dog doesn’t get enough nutrients.
22. If two organisms occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time, what must be true about the
organisms?
They must compete for the same resources
23. Owls and hawks often live in the same areas and hunt the same foods. Why can they survive together in the
same habitat?
They have fill different niches.
Part 5: Nutrient Cycles: Carbon and Nitrogen
1. NAME THE CYCLE DESCRIBED:
CARBON CYCLE Cycle in which photosynthesis and cellular respiration participate
NITROGEN CYCLE Cycle which is dependent on bacteria for nitrogen fixation and denitrification
NITROGEN CYCLE Cycle in which volcanic activity and burning fossil fuels plays a role
2. List 2 human activities by which carbon can enter the atmosphere as CO during the carbon cycle
2
RESPIRATION (BREATHING IT OUT) COMBUSTION (BURNING FOSSIL FULES)
3. Name 2 NON-human activities by which carbon can enter the atmosphere or oceans during the carbon
cycle.
DECOMPOSITION OF ORGANISMS
COMBUSTION (FOREST FIRES)
4. Describe one way carbon leaves the atmosphere during the carbon cycle.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
5. Describe something humans do to return nitrogen to the soil for the nitrogen cycle.
ADD FERTILIZER WITH NITROGEN TO THE GROUND
6. Although almost 80% of the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen gas, most living things don’t have the
enzymes necessary to use nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Explain how we get the nitrogen we
need to make proteins and DNA if we can’t get it from breathing.
Bacteria known as nitrogen fixers change the nitrogen gas into nitrogen solids that plants use to
grow. Animals eat those plants and humans either eat the plants or eat the animals that eat the
plants.