Coral Reef Ecosystem Scipack: The Living Reef (1 st section)
1. Describe an ecosystem.
2. What is meant by biodiversity?
3. Of what value are coral reefs?
4. What are stressors of coral reefs?
5. Of what are corals composed?
6. Sketch a polyp and label: tentacle, cnidoblast, mouth, zooxanthellae, stomach
7. How do corals kill their food?
8. What are autotrophic and hetertrophic nutrition?
9. What are zooxanthellae? What do they provide for the coral?
10. a) What raw materials are needed for photosynthesis? b) Where do these come from for the corals?
c) What is the sugar molecule that is produced?
11. a) What enables corals to build reefs? b) Describe how corals build reefs.
12. a) Name some different kinds of corals. b) How do some of the corals get their names?
13. What is the difference between hard and soft corals?
14. Describe the three types of coral reefs: fringing reef, barrier reef, atolls
15. a) Why do many organisms inhabit coral reefs? b) What are survival strategies of these organisms?
16. Describe the sexual and asexual coral reproduction.
Flow of Matter & Energy in Ecosystems Scipack:
Does Matter Matter? (1 st section)
1. a) Describe van Helmont’s experiment with growing a willow tree. b) What was the question he was
trying to answer?
2. a) Describe an ecosystem. b) Explain how it is made up of an interdependent community of organisms
along with their interactions with the chemical and physical components of the environment.
3. a) What are biotic and abiotic components in an ecosystem? b) What are some ways in which living and
non-living components of an ecosystem could react with each other?
4. a) What is an Ecosphere? b) What are the components in an Ecosphere? c) Name some interactions that
occur in the Ecosphere.
5. a) How would you describe a system? b) What are the necessary components of a system? c) How
does the graph of the lynx and hare represent a system?
6. a) What is a stock and flow diagram? b) Would a stock, or a flow, best fit the concept that matter is
stored in plant tissue?
7. a) What are producers? b) Explain why producers responsible initiating the cycling matter to produce
biomass. c) What is produced by photosynthesis? d) What are some producers in various ecosystems?
8. How is the Law of Conservation of Energy applied to an ecosystem?
9. a) What is a consumer? b) Where does a consumer get its nutrients for growth and energy?
10. What do a carnivore, an herbivore an omnivore and a decomposer eat?
11. What are the largest numbers or decomposers and detritovores?
12. What is the function of feedback loops in an ecosystem>
13. What are the five key biochemical cycles? Why are these abiotic molecules needed in an ecosystem?
14. Categorize organisms in a community based on their sources of matter/biomass and nutrients as one of
the following: producers, herbivores (primary consumers), carnivores (secondary consumers, tertiary, or topconsumers), omnivores, and decomposers.
15. Draw the relative biomass for the different trophic levels in a biomass pyramid for a typical ecosystem.
16. Explain how matter is conserved in the interactions between consumers and producers, but that in a
biomass pyramid there is less biomass at the consumer level compared to the producer level.
Interdependence of Life Scipack: Organisms & Their Environment (1st section)
1. a) What are the components of a system? b) What are the Earth’s four (five) sub systems?
2. a) What are the three types of ecosystems? b) What are the four parts of each ecosystem? c) Give
examples of these four parts in a forest ecosystem.
3. a) Producers (plants) carry on phototsynthesis. b) What happens during photosynthesis to the carbon
dioxide and sunlight? C) What happens during transpiration?
4. What is the function of the feedback loop in an ecosystem?
5. What are abiotic factors and how do they influence the populations in an ecosystem?
6. Describe the function and importance of these abiotic factors in the influence the size and growth of
populations in an ecosystem.: a) Water (solvent); b) Temperature; c) Sunlight; d) Soil & Nutrients
7. Describe the function and importance of these biotic factors in the influence the size and growth of
populations in an ecosystem.:
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Competition
Predation: a) Herbivores; b) Carnivores; c) Omnivore
Symbiosis
o Commensalism
o Mutualism
o Parasitism
o Amensalism
o Neutralism
Decomposition
8. Distinguish among population, community and species.
9. Comment on the distribution patterns of a) clumped, b) uniform, or c) random.
10. What methods do you think ecologists might use to determine the population density of a species over a
given area?
11. a) Describe the three factors that contribute to population growth? b) How do invasive species affect
population growth?
12. Why do populations fluctuate over time? What causes a population to increase? To decrease?
13. Describe possible immediate and long-term effects on an individual population that exceeds the carrying
capacity of its environment.
14. What is the difference between immigration and emigration?
15. a) What is the difference between and give examples of intrinsic limiting factors and extrinsic limiting
factors? b) … of density-dependent limiting factors and density-independent limiting factors.
Resources & Human Impact Scipack: Earth as a System (1 st section)
1. a) What are the components of a system? b) Describe each of the Earth’s four subsystems or spheres?
2. Describe the function and importance of abiotic factors in the influence the size and growth of populations
in an ecosystem.: a) Water ; b) Temperature; c) Sunlight; d) Soil & Nutrients
3. Describe some ways that biotic factors interact with each other in the environment.
4. Describe some ways that abiotic and biotic factors interact with each other in the environment.
5. What is the carrying capacity of an ecosystem?
6. Explain how various parts of the environment impact carrying capacity: a) population size (birth/death
rate; food for energy; water supply; amount of space available; number of species competing for shelter.
7. What is a feedback loop in an ecosystem?
8. a) What is/are the effect(s) of a positive feedback loop? b) What is the effect when more greenhouse
gases are released in the atmosphere?
9. . a) What is/are the effect(s) of a negative feedback loop?
10. How do the positive and negative feedback loops maintain an equilibrium in the ecosystem?
11. What is the story of what happened on Easter Island? How does this compare with the Lorax story?
12. How do human interactions affect the carrying capacity of the ecosystem?
13. List examples of the living and nonliving resources that humans need for survival.
14. Make comparisons and of how all living things—human or not—share common needs.