Ecology Test Study Guide
1. Describe the three types of symbiotic relationships.
2. How do decomposers help producers?
3. At the top of every food web is a _______ (type of consumer).
4. Describe what happens to energy as it moves up an ecological pyramid.
5. How is carbon dioxide converted to oxygen?
6. What are abiotic factors?
7. After a forest fire, plants come back in abundance. What types of limiting factor to plant growth is removed?
8. If a closed ecosystem had no plants, what would happen to the animals living in that ecosystem?
9. What type of abiotic factor would limit the number of frogs living in a pond?
10. Some caterpillars need big wide leaves to wrap up in when undergoing metamorphosis. What would be a limiting factor when there is a shortage of this kind of leaf?
11. A certain species of snake in an ecosystem consumes frogs, salamanders, and small rodents. Which change in the ecosystem will most likely cause an increase in the snake population?
12. Describe carrying capacity.
13. Bluebirds, beetles, wood ducks, squirrels, and owls all will nest in holes in hollow trees. If many hollow trees were removed from the area, which would most likely increase?
14. A pride of lions stalks, tackles, and kills an antelope. What type of relationship is being demonstrated?
15. What is the symbiotic relationship between a tree and mistletoe?
16. A wolf and a rabbit are an example of which ecological relationship?
17. Two different species of birds live in one particular spruce tree. What would best allow the two bird species to coexist in the same tree?
18. Which property makes the water cycle on Earth possible?
19. Significant destruction of a forest habitat will increase which gas in the atmosphere?
20. What happens after decomposers break down matter?
21. Which type of organism would most likely benefit directly from increased levels CO2?
22. What role do most types of bacteria have within a food web?
23. Which process in the water cycle would be accelerated by an increase in temperature?
24. Leaves fall from deciduous trees onto the forest floor. These leaves decay slowly and become part of the topsoil. How does an increase in the amount of decomposers have a positive impact on the nutrients available in the topsoil?