Name: _________________________________________
Chapter 3 Review Sheet
Important Vocabulary Terms you should be familiar with:
Organism: a single living thing
Specie: a group of the same organisms that have the ability to reproduce fertile offspring
Population: group of the same organisms of the same species living in the same place
Community: all of the populations that interact in a location
Ecosystem: all the living and non-living components of an area
Biome: distinct region characterized by climate and vegetation.
Biosphere: all areas of the world where life can exist
Autotroph: organisms that make their own food (producers)
Heterotroph: organisms that must consume food fore energy (consumers)
Herbivore:
Omnivore:
Carnivore: consume vegetation eat both meat and vegetation only eat meat
Decomposer: break down dead organic material and absorb it
Scavenger: wait for other organisms to kill food and then eat the remains
Detritovore: eat decaying matter
Primary Consumer: herbivores
Secondary Consumer: second level of consumption
Trophic Level: each level of a food chain
Food Chain: energy transfer through consumption
Food Web: all interacting food chains in an area
Biogeochemical Cycle: the nutrient cycles
Biomass: dry weight of organic matter
Energy Pyramids: scientific model of how energy flows through a system.
Biology 414

Concepts to understand:
Explain how ecology involves both biotic and abiotic components. ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their environment.
What is the hierarchy in organization from the smallest living thing to the largest thing studied by ecologists? see above order of vocab terms from organism to biosphere.
What powers all energy on Earth? Explain why/how. sun because it is the driving force, it shines on plants which photosynthesize and make food and without plants then there would be no other life on Earth because there would be no starting point to the food chain
What happens as energy is moved through trophic levels of a food chain / energy pyramid?
90% is lost as heat, or used through metabolic functions, the other 10% is transferred
If there are 1000 units of energy available at the producer level of the energy pyramid how much would be available for the primary consumers? (hint: use the rule of 10%) SHOW WORK.
1000 = 100 units of energy
10
What are energy pyramids representing? Draw one and label the following levels secondary consumer, producer, primary consumer.
The transfer of energy
2 o consumer
1 o producer
consumer
Explain the major steps of the water cycle. (evaporation/transpiration/ condensation/precipitation/ collection/runoff)
transpiration is the evaporation of water through the leaves of plants.
evaporation is the changing of H
2
O gas to H
2
O liqid
condensation is the changing of water from gas form to liquid in the sky to create clouds
precipitation is the downward movement of water through the atmosphere (snow, rain, sleet)
runoff occurs when water hits a surface that is nonpermeable and water flows downhill until it is collected somewhere.

How are humans negatively impacting the water cycle? pollution, burning of fossil fuels creates acid rain, use of fertilizers adds nitrogen to the water.
What two main processes occur during the carbon cycle? What is each doing? photosynthesis turns inorganic carbon (CO
2
) into organic carbon (C
6
H
12
O
6
)
Cellular respiration does the opposite.
How are humans increasing the amount of CO
2
and CH
4
in the atmosphere? What is the problem with this? deforestation prevents plants from pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. burning of fossil fuels puts more CO s
and methane into the atmosphere, which are green house gases and they trap heat in the atmosphere.
The nitrogen cycle converts nitrogen in what form to usable forms?
Converts nitrogen gas into ammonia, ammonium, nitrate, nitrite
Explain the steps of the nitrogen cycle. (nitrogen fixation, assimilation, decomposition, denitrification) nitrogen fixing bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonia in the root nodules of plants. assimilation is the uptake of nitrogen by the plants. decomposition breaks down organic material and adds nitrogen back into the soil dentrification converts ammonia back into nitrogen gas to go back into the atmosphere
Why is nitrogen important for living things? it is needed to create amino acids, proteins, and DNA
How are humans having a negative impact on the nitrogen cycle?
the use of fertilizers adds too much nitrogen, which then pollutes our water. removing vegetation also removes nitrogen fixing bacteria, which prevents nitrogen being converted into ammonia