Study Guide – Environment & Ecosystems & Cycles in Nature
Environmental Organization
 Distinguish between the biotic and abiotic parts of the environment
o List several biotic parts of the environment
o List several abiotic parts of the environment
 ID and describe the 5 levels of environmental organization
o Which levels contain only biotic parts?
o Which levels contain both biotic and abiotic parts?
o How is a population different than a community?
 Vocabulary: biotic, abiotic, ecology, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere,
organism
Energy in the Ecosystem
 Explain how energy flows through a food web
o What do the arrows in a food web/chain show?
o What is a primary consumer? Secondary consumer? Tertiary consumer?
o How would other organisms be affected if one organism was removed from food
web?
o What does an energy pyramid show?
o Why are there fewer organisms at the top of energy pyramid?
 Describe the functions of producers, consumers and decomposers in an ecosystem
o What is the job of producers? Why are they important in the ecosystem?
o What is the job of consumers?
o What is the job of decomposers?
 Distinguish between a food web and a food chain
 Vocabulary: herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger, producer, consumer,
decomposer, food web, food chain, energy pyramid, niche, habitat, autotroph,
heterothroph
Types of Interactions
 ID interactions in the environment
o What is carrying capacity?
o What are limiting factors?
 ID and describe the interactions among organisms
o What are the 3 types of symbiotic relationships
o Give examples of each of the 6 types of interactions among organisms

Vocabulary: limiting factors, carrying capacity, competition, predator, prey, symbiosis,
mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, coevoultion
Cycles in Nature
 Trace the cycle of water between the land, oceans, atmosphere and organisms
o How does water get transferred between the biotic and abiotic parts of living
things?
 How does water get from the environment into plants? Animals?
 How does water from living things get into the environment?
o Why is water important to living things?
 Diagram the carbon cycle and explain why carbon is important to living things
o How does carbon gets transferred between the biotic and abiotic parts of the
environment?
 How does C get from the environment into plants? Animals?
 How does C from living things get into the environment?
o How does too much carbon in the atmosphere affect the environment?
o Why carbon is important to living things?
 Diagram the nitrogen cycle and explain why nitrogen is important to living things
o How nitrogen gets transferred between the biotic and abiotic parts of the
environment?
 How does N get from the environment into plants? Animals?
 How does N from living things get into the environment?
o What is the job of bacteria in the N-cycle?
o What role do producers, consumers, and decomposers play in the nitrogen
cycle?
o Why is nitrogen important to living things?
 Vocabulary: decomposition, combustion, transpiration, evaporation, condensation