Ecology Unit Study Guide
Disclaimer - This study guide may not contain all the material included on the unit test and/or the EOCT however, it was created with the honest intention of containing all required material.
Vocabulary
autotroph,
abiotic,
acid rain,
aquifer,
biodiversity,
biosphere,
biotic,
biodiversity index,
carbon cycle,
carnivore,
carrying capacity,
community,
consumer,
climate,
commensalism,
cellular respiration,
climax community,
condensation,
deforestation,
decomposer,
evaporation,
extinction,
ecosystem,
energy pyramid,
fossil fuel,
global warming,
greenhouse effect,
erosion,
herbivore,
habitat,
heterotroph,
individual,
keystone species,
mutualism,
niche,
nitrogen cycle,
omnivore,
population,
predator-prey,
phosphorus cycle,
photosynthesis,
producer,
pioneer species,
primary succession,
precipitation,
producer,
run off,
recycling,
symbiosis,
secondary succession,
trophic levels,
transpiration,
water cycle,
limiting factor,
food web,
competition,
primary consumer,
secondary consumer,
tertiary consumer,
biogeochemical cycles,
What students should KNOW, UNDERSTAND be able to DO
- Ecosystems are geographic locations that have representative climates and organisms
- Differentiate between organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems and biomes
- List abiotic and biotic factors within an ecosystem and several representative biomes
- Predict the effect of limiting factors on the growth of a population
- Consumers include herbivores, carnivores, decomposers and omnivores
- A community’s interactions include competition, predator/prey interactions, and the various types of symbiosis – mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism
- Evaluate the effects of community interactions on different populations
- A niche is the sum of all the abiotic and biotic interactions involving an organism which determines its role in the community
- Recognize that no two organisms can occupy the same niche within an ecosystem
- Recognize the role of an organism within a food chain or feed web and that it represents the flow of energy from producers to consumers
- Construct a food chain/food web for a given ecosystem and identify the niche of each organism
- The sun is the major source of all energy in ecosystems
- Infer the effect of a change within a trophic level to other levels within the energy pyramid or a food chain/web
- Trophic levels include producers, consumers, and decomposers
- An energy pyramid shows how the level of energy transferred to each higher trophic level decreases
- Matter is recycled through various systems in an ecosystem
- Illustrate the recycling of matter in an ecosystem – the biogeochemical cycles
- Analyze the transfer of energy and matter through an ecosystem
- Evaluate the effects of human activities on the environment i.e. pollution, global warming, explosive population, pesticides and herbicide usage, resources consumption, renewable and nonrenewable
- Succession is a natural process of change in the abiotic and biotic factors in a geographic area resulting in environmental variation and the establishment of a climax community
- Differentiate between primary and secondary succession to changes within an ecosystem
- Recognize that human activities can influence succession in a geographic area
- Sequence the various stages of succession
- Identify plant and animal adaptations, both physical and behavioral, relate to survival in their environment
- Certain plant behaviors (tropisms) are adaptations for survival in their environment
- Determine which plant and animal adaptations are the most favorable in a particular environment