Ecology Reading Guide #1 (Chp 2)
Name
Period
Date
Chapter 2, p.34
1. The study of plants and animals, including where they grow and live, what they eat, or what eats them,
is called
.
2. Ecology is the study of
3. The portion of Earth that supports living things is called the
.
4. If the Earth were an apple, what part would be the biosphere?
5. Read about abiotic and biotic factors on pages 37-38. Determine if the following environmental factors
are abiotic (write A) or biotic (write B)
a. Climate
d. Light
g. Predators
b. Rainfall
e. Insects
h. Bacteria
c. Plants
f. Soil nutrients
6. To help them understand the interactions of the biotic and abiotic parts of the world, ecologists have
the living world into levels- the
by itself,
,
, and
.
7. What is a population?
8. Competition increases when
9. A
are in short supply.
is made up of interacting populations in a certain area at a certain time.
10. Use figure 2.4 on page 40 to label the images below as organism, population, biological community,
ecosystem, and biosphere:
11. What makes up an ecosystem?
12. List two examples of ecosystems.
13. Read the two descriptions below, which describes a habitat and which describes a niche?
a. A cat lives in a house.
b. A cat lives in a house, eats cat chow, drinks milk/water, chases the bugs and mice in the house,
is adapted to cuddling with its owner, sleeps on the couch, and is sometimes chased by the dog
14. Would it be an advantage or disadvantage for organisms to occupy different niches?
15. The relationship in which there is a
and
between organisms
of different species is called symbiosis.
16. Match the survival relationships on to their definition (pages 44-45)- DRAW ARROWS
a. A relationship where both species
benefit
b. A relationship where one species

Parasitism
benefits and the other is neither

Commensalism
harmed nor benefited

Mutualism
c. A relationship where a member of
one species benefits at the expense
of another
17. Ecologists trace the flow of the
through communities to discover nutritional
relationships between organisms.
18. What is the ultimate source of energy for life?
19. What is an autotroph?
20. List two examples of autotrophs.
21. Other organisms in the biosphere depend on autotrophs for
dependent organisms are called
and
. These
.
22. List an example of a consumer.
23. An organism that cannot make its own food and feeds on other organisms is called a
24. What does an herbivore feed on?
25. What does a carnivore feed on?
26. Scavengers eat animals that have
.
27. An organism such as ourselves that eats both plants and animals is called what?
28. What are decomposers?
29. Use figure 2.12 on pages 48-49 to give an example of each of the following:
a. Autotroph
d. Third order heterotroph
b. First order heterotrophs
e. Decomposer
c. Second order heterotroph
f. Omnivore
30. A food chain is a simple model that scientists use to show how
through an
and
move
.
 black bear
31. Complete the food chain: berries
32. A portion of the energy is given off as
at each
.
33. Each organism in a food chain represents a feeding step, or
, in the passage of
energy and materials.
34. What is shown in a food web?
35. Which is more realistic- A
or a food chain? (circle one)
36. An ecological pyramid can show how
.
37. Use Figures 2.14, 2.15, and 2.16 to complete the pyramids below (pages 52-53)
0.1%
Consumers
Fox (1)
kilograms
of beef
10% consumers
kilograms of grain
Grasses (3000)
% Producers
38. The total energy transfer from one trophic level to the next is only about
because organisms fail to capture and
all the
available at the trophic level
them.
39. When an organism consumes food, it uses some of the energy in the food for its
for
and some is
40. When that organism is eaten, the
.
that was used to
again available as energy to be used by the organism that
41.
as
- some
is
it.
is the total weight of living matter at each trophic level.
42. Matter, in the form of
, also
, or is a part of, all organisms at each
trophic level.
43. The atoms of
today are the
,
, and other elements that make up the bodies of organisms alive
atoms that have been on Earth since life
. It is never
.
. Matter is constantly
44. Fill in the blanks below using the diagram of the water cycle on page 53. Figure 2.17
45. Fill in the blanks below using the diagram of the carbon cycle on page 55. Figure 2.18
46. Fill in the blanks below using the diagram of the nitrogen cycle on page 56. Figure 2.19
Animals…