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Ecology Objectives 5.1.1 Species: a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.

Habitat: the environment in which a species normally lives or the location of a living organism. Population: a group of organisms of the same species who live in the same area at the same time. Community: a group of populations living and interacting with each other in an area. Ecosystem: a community and its abiotic environment. Ecology: the study of relationships between living organisms and between organisms and their environment. 5.1.2 Autotroph: an organism that synthesizes its organic molecules from simple inorganic substances. Heterotroph: an organism that obtains organic molecules from other organisms. 5.1.3 Consumer: an organism that synthesizes its organic molecules from simple inorganic substances. Detritivore: an organism that ingests non-living organic matter. Saprotroph: an organism that lives on or in non-living organic matter, secreting digestive enzymes into it and absorbing the products of digestion. 5.1.4 Food chain: sequences of trophic relationships, where each member in the sequence feeds on the previous one. Passionflower Helconius butterfly Tegu lizard Jaguar Carrot plant Carrot fly Flycatcher Sparrowhawk Hoshawk Sea lettuce Marine iguana Galapagos snake Galapagos hawk 5.1.5 Food web: A diagram that shows all the feeding relationships in a community. 5.1.6 Trophic level: the position of an organism in the food chain. 5.1.7-5.1.9: look at the syllabus 5.1.10 Energy losses between trohpic levels include material not consumed or material not assimilated, and heat loss through cell respiration. 5.1.11 Energy transformations are never 100% efficient. 5.1.12 A pyramid of energy shows the flow of energy from one tropic level to the next in a community. The units of pyramids are energy unit area per unit time. Pyramids of energy are always pyramid shaped. This is because less energy flows through each successive trophic level. Energy is lost at each trophic level, so less remains for the next level. 5.1.13 Energy is not recycled. It is supplied to ecosystems in the form of light, flows through food chains and I lost as heat. Nutrients are not usually resupplied to ecosystems they must be used

again and again by recycling. They are absorbed from the environment, used by living organisms and then returned to the environment. 5.1.14 Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi recycle nutrients. 5.2.1: diagram 5.2.2: look at the syllabus 5.2.3 The greenhouse effect is not a new phenomenon. Light from the sun has short wavelengths and can mostly pass through the atmosphere. Sunlight warms up the surface of the Earth which emits long-wave radiation. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere including carbon dioxide, methane, oxides of nitrogen, and sulfur dioxide trap some of the long wave radiation, causing the Earth to be warmer than if the radiation escaped. 5.2.4 The precautionary principle holds that, if the effects of a human induced change would be very large, perhaps catastrophic, those responsible for the change must prove that it will not do harm before proceeding. This is the reverse of the normal situation, where those who are concerned about the change would have to prove that it will do harm in order to prevent such changes going ahead. 5.2.5 Although there is strong evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming, there is no proof. Some politicians and business leaders have argued against measures to combat global warming, because it is not certain that greenhouse gases are causing it. Oil companies and airlines in particular have voiced opposition. 5.2.6 Effects include increased rates of decomposition of detritus previously trapped in permafrost, expansion of the range of habitats available to temperate species, loss of ice habitat, changes in distribution of prey species affecting higher trophic levels, and increased success of pest species, including pathogens. 5.3.1 Natality: offsprings are produced and are added to the population. Mortality: individuals die and are lost from the population. Immigration: individuals move into the area from elsewhere and are added to the population. Emigration: individuals move out of the area to live elsewhere. 5.3.2: diagram 5.3.3 Exponential phase: the population increases exponentially because the natality rate is higher than the mortality rate. The resources needed by the population such as food are abundant, and disease and predators are rare. Transitional phase: the natality rate starts to fall and the mortality rate starts to rise. Natality is still higher than mortality so the population still rises, but less and less rapidly. Plateau phase: Natality and mortality are equal so the population size is constant. All the limiting factors of population reduce the natality rate or increase the mortality rate.

5.3.4 Shortage of resources, more predator, and more disease or parasites.

G.1.1 The factors that affect the distribution of plant species include temperature, water, light, soil pH, salinity and mineral nutrients. G.1.2 Temperature: external temperatures affect all animals, especially those that do not maintain constant internal body temperatures. Extremes of temperature require special adaptations, so only some species can survive them. Water: animals vary in the amount of water that they require. Some animals are aquatic and must have water to live in and at the other extreme some animals including desert rats are adapted to survive in arid areas where they are unlikely ever to drink water. Breeding sites: all species of animals breed at some stage in their life cycle. Many species need a special type of site and can only live in areas where these sites are available. Food supply: many animal species are adapted to feed on specific foods and can only live in areas where these foods are obtainable. Territory: some species of animal establish and defend territories, either for feeding or breeding. G.1.3 1. Make out gridlines along two edges of the area. 2. Use a calculator or tables to generate two random numbers, to use as co-ordinates and place a quadrat on the ground with its corner at these co-ordinates. 3. Count how many individuals there are inside the quadrat of the plant population being studied. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as possible. 4. Measure the total size of the area occupied by the population in square meters. 5. Calculate the mean number of plants per quadrat. Then calculate the estimated population size using this equation:

G.1.4 Transects are particularly useful when there is a gradient in an abiotic variable. They can be used to investigate plant and animal distributions on seashores. The transect should be laid out at right angles to the high tide and low tide lines, so that it follows the gradient in time of inundation by sea water and time of exposure to air. G.1.5 The mode of existence of a species in an ecosystem is its ecological niche. The niche includes habitat, nutrition, relationships. Habitat is where the species lives in the ecosystem. Nutrition is

how the species obtains its food. Relationships are the interactions with other species in the ecosystem. G.1.6 Herbivory: a primary consumer feeding on a plant or other producer. The producers growth affects food availability for the herbivore. (The beetle Epitrix atropae feeds only on leaves of Atropa belladonna; Snail Lacuna pallid feeds on the brown seaweed Fucus serratus) Predation: a consumer feeding on another consumer. The numbers and behavior of the prey affect the predator. (The Canada lynx is a predator of the Arctic hare; Bonitos feed on anchovetas in Pacific Ocean) Parasitism: a parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and obtains food from it. The host is always harmed by the parasite. (The tick lxodes scapularis is a parasite of deer and of white-footed mice in northeast USA; Sphingomonas bacteria cause a disease in elliptical star corals on the Florida reef) Competition: two species using the same resource compete if the amount of the resource used by each species reduces the amount available to the other species. (Douglas Fir and Western Hemlock grow together and compete for resources in forests in Oregon; Pocillopora damicornis competes with many other corals, including Pavona varians) Mutualism: mutulists are members of different species that live together in a close relationship, from which both benefit. (Usnea subfloridana and other lichens consist of fungus and an alga growing mutualistically; the cleaner wrasse is a small fish of warm tropical seas that cleans parasites from the gill and body of larger fish such as reticulate damsel fishes) G.1.7 Only one species can occupy a niche in an ecosystem. G.1.8 The fundamental niche of a species is the potential mode of existence, given the adaptations of the species. The realized niche of a species is the actual mode of existence, which results from tis adaptations and competition with other species. G.1.9 The total dry mass of organic matter in organisms or ecosystems G.1.10 1. Representative samples of all living organisms in the ecosystem are collected. 2. The organisms are sorted into trophic levels. 3. The organisms are dried, by being placed in an oven. 4. The mass of organisms in each trophic level is measured using an electronic balance. 5. Drying and measuring the mass may be repeated to check that samples were completely dry. G.2.1

Gross production is the total amount of organic matter produced by plants in an ecosystem. Net production is the amount of gross production in an ecosystem remaining after subtracting the amount used by plants in respiration. G.2.2: GP R =NP G.2.3 Sorting organisms into trophic levels can cause considerable difficulties. This is because many species exist partly in on trophic level and partly in another. G.2.4 The total biomass of food available to higher trophic levels is very small. It cannot support large numbers of organisms, especially if these organisms need to be large to overpower their prey. Higher trophic levels therefore usually contain very small numbers of large organisms, with a low total biomass per unit area. G.2.5: look at the syllabus G.2.6 Primary succession starts in an environment where living organisms have not previously existed, for example a new island created by volcanic activity. Secondary succession occurs in areas where an ecosystem is present, but is replaced by other ecosystems because of change in conditions, for example abandoned farmland developing into forest. G.2.7 During an ecological succession, the community causes the abiotic environment to change. As a result, some species die out and others join the community. Although the community may continue to change in this way for hundreds of years, eventually a stable community develops, called the climax community.

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