Study Guide for Ecology Final Exam:

							Study Guide for Ecology Final Exam:

Biomes
1. The biome with the greatest species diversity is Rain Forest

2. In North America, in what direction would you usually have to travel to go from a coniferous forest to a
deciduous forest? South/East
3. Grasslands occur between deserts and Forests

4. Seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface is contained in Forests
5. Which biome receives the least amount of rainfall? Desert, Tundra

6. Which part of the rainforest environment do most of the organisms live? Canopy
7. The Dust Bowl was the result of overfarming, drought, overgrazing

8. Most of the nutrients in the rain forest ecosystem exist in organisms. Explain why clear cut areas here may
   never regenerate. Poor soil

9. Prairies and steppes grow rich crops of grain because fertile soil

10. The vast species diversity in rain forests indicates that these forests niches

11. One of the most important factors determining the types of organisms in an aquatic biome is

    Salinity, depth and dissolved oxygen
12. What is one characteristic that both deserts and grasslands have in common? Little rainfall

13. How does fire benefits grasslands? Fertilizer, helps seeds germinate, gets rids of dead grass

14. The seeds of many grassland plants are distributed by wind

Plants
   1. What is a succulent? Give examples has thick, water filled tissue EX- Cacti, Aloe, Jade

   2. Horizontal stems connecting one plant to another below the ground are called runners

   3.                                   Identify broad leaf and evergreen trees:




   Maple                Hickory

   4. Cactus spines are really modified_leaves_____________

   Water
   1. What is the most important requirement for all living things? Water
   2. How do people use rivers? Transportation, energy, food, irrigation

   3. Where did the water originate that form natural springs? Aquifers
   4. A pump does not need to be used to raise groundwater to the surface in areas
      where artesian wells are located because the water in artesian wells is under pressure
5. Name ways to characterize aquatic biomes:
         Salinity
                 Depth
                 Dissolved oxygen

Energy
1. What do tertiary consumers eat? Secondary and primary consumers

2. Energy moves through the ecosystem in the form of _bio_____mass.
3. In one day, a zebra eats 10kg of grass. A lion kills and eats the zebra. About how much of the energy
   contained in this grass is usable by the lion?


4. From where do autotrophs get the energy that produces their food?
Sun
Relationships
1. What effect does a keystone predator have on its habitat? Increases species diversity

2. Legumes(such as potatoes) enrich soil by adding nitrogen to it through their root nodules

3. Describe(overall) interactions in the environment. complex

4. Lichens are important to an ecosystem because they help form soil which provides a substrate for seeds
   to germinate.

5. An organism that feeds on the body fluids or tissues of another organism but does not kill it is called
   Parasite
6. An increase in herbivore populations in an ecosystem will soon lead to an increase in carnivores
7. Describe a stable ecosystem. It includes many different organisms

8. Competition occurs between species when they try to share the same niche

9. Condors are related to vultures and feed on carion, or dead animals.

   Condors’ role in the food web is as: scavenger

10. Killing the vegetation in an ecosystem would destroy the entire ecosystem because all life depends on
    producers.

Adaptations
1. Many desert mammals have long ears filled with capillaries. How does this adaptation help desert
   animals? Cools the body

2. A giraffe’s long neck is an adaptation to what ecological factor in the savanna?

   Vertical Feeding Pattern

3. Air trapped in a caribou’s coat function as insulation

Atmosphere
1. In which part of the atmosphere do you live? Troposphere
     2. A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect is carbon dioxide

     3. Ultraviolet radiation is blocked from reaching Earth’s surface by what substance found in the
        atmosphere? ozone
     4. Temperatures in the thermosphere can reach 2000 degrees C
     5. Nitrogen makes up what percent of air composition on earth? 78%

     Abiotic Factors
     1. The tropical zones have stable year-round temperatures because of their
        abundant rainfall

     2. As layers of sediment are compressed, they form what type of rock? sedimentary
     3. List abiotic factors that affect organisms. Wind, temperature, sun, water, light, climate, soil
     4. What part of the Earth are volcanoes located? Lithosphere

     5. Two primary processes are involved in the carbon cycle: photosynthesis and cellular respiration

     6. Erosion is caused by flowing water, rain, wind

     7. The lithosphere is made up of several movable plates called tectonic

     8. Which planet orbiting the sun is the closest?Mercury

     9. Fossils are usually found in what type of rock?    Sedimentary Rock



     Scientific Investigation

     1. When new information conflicts with a hypothesis, the hypothesis record, reject it, retest

     2. A scientific explanation for a natural occurrence is a hypothesis

     3. In a controlled experiment the scientist knows the outcome.

     4. Science does not attempt to answer questions that deal with our ethics, morals, values

     5. A hypothesis must be rejected when it is not supported by data

     6. “Ozone depletion is caused by CFCs” is an example of a scientific hypothesis



     Basic Terms

1. Raccoons will eat almost anything. They are most accurately called? omnivores
2. Dormancy in animals is called hibernation

3.      An ecosystem with low biodiversity contains few organisms

4. What is a heterotroph? Cannot make its food
5. Panda bears can only eat certain kinds of bamboo. Panda bears are, therefore, considered to be
Specialized species
6. The cheetahs in Kenya and the cheetahs in Tanzania make up separate species

7.      Space, a requirement of organisms, is sometimes claimed by specific animals in an area called a
        Territory
8.      Environmental science is the study of relationships


     9. Over time, changing environments affect the process of evolution

Populations

  1. In a balanced ecosystem, the carrying capacity for a given species should be stable

  2.    When scientists say that the balance in the ecosystem is dynamic they mean that

     3. In which place would you probably find the most organisms? swamp or mountain top

     4. Succession- The process of populations replacing other populations over time.

     5. Primary succession- Occurring on bare surfaces/ex: rock(after volcanic eruption), sand

     6. Climax community- most mature ecosystem including hardwood trees.

     7. In the Antarctic, as baleen whale numbers increase you would expect seals to increase

     8. Two species of clover were planted in the same patch of garden. In time, one species disappeared from

        the patch. This is probably the result of: competition

     9. Through aquatic succession, a clear lake may eventually become a field

     10. Mass killings of predators may result in an overpopulation of prey



Other

     1. Approximate age of the Earth? 4.6 billion years

     2. How much trash does the average American produce daily? 4.5 pounds

     3. To measure the clarity of pond water you would perform a __turbity________ test

     4. To measure the acidity of a solution you would perform a __pH________ test

     5. El Nino occurs every ____4-7___________years.

     6. Owls produce pellets which include indigestible materials such as bone, teeth, hair

     7. New York’s Finger Lakes, which were formed by the same process as were the Great Lakes, were
        formed by: glaciers retreating
     8. The extinction of a species means that it has disappeared from the earth forever


9.      What science fields are used in environmental science?