Honors Biology
Feb 2012
ECOLOGY
Ch. 34-38
Name ____________
Period _______
TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT
DUE: _____________________
(LATE PENALTY – 5 points EACH DAY)
Grade value of this packet: 50 points
a. Concept review questions (40 points)
b. Two activity/review sheets (10 points)
This is an independent assignment.
A quiz on ecology will follow class review of this topic.
Ecology is the subject of Unit 7 in your text, comprising Chapters 34-38.
This packet focuses on basic concepts and terminology in order to establish a
sound framework in this subject, which we will then expand upon in class.
1
ECOLOGY CONCEPT REVIEW
TYPE your answers to the following questions in complete
sentences. (Attach it to this packet.)
Chapter 34 : The Biosphere
1. How is a biome different from an ecosystem? List 4 abiotic factors and 3 biotic
factors that make up an ecosystem.
2. List the terrestrial biomes. What major factors distinguish one biome from
another?
Chapter 36: Population Dynamics
3. What are some factors that control population size? What is carrying capacity?
4. What are limiting factors? What happens when a new population is introduced to
a new environment?
Chapter 37: Communities and Ecosystems
5. What is an ecological niche? What role does competition play in shaping a
community?
6. Explain how camouflage and mimicry are adaptive advantages. Give an example
of each.
7. What is a trophic level? Which trophic level contains the most energy? How much
energy is passed to each succeeding level?
8. Describe a food web: What must every food web contain? What are primary
consumers? What is a detritivore?
9. Distinguish 3 kinds of symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Give
an example of each.
10. How does the way that chemicals move through the biosphere differ from the way
energy flows? List four different substances that cycle between living and nonliving
parts of the biosphere.
Chapter 38: Conservation Biology
11. Name three greenhouse gases and explain how they warm the earth’s surface.
Describe some physical and biological evidence for global climate change.
12. Why does pollution affect organisms at the top of the food chain more than those at
lower trophic levels?
13. What is an algal bloom and why are they harmful?
14. What are 2 consequences of deforestation?
15. Explain how pollution and habitat destruction are major threats to species diversity.
2
Ch. 37 - Trophic Levels and Ecological Pyramids
Write True or False on the line provided.
1. Primary consumers always make up the first trophic level in a food web.
2. Ecological pyramids show the relative amount of energy or matter contained within
each trophic level in a given food web.
3. On average, about 50 percent of the energy available within one trophic level is
transferred to the next trophic level.
4. The more levels that exist between a producer and a given consumer, the larger the
percentage of the original energy from producers is available to that consumer.
Match the organism listed below with its trophic level in the food web illustrated. A trophic level may
be used more than once.
Trophic Level
A. primary producer
B. first-level consumer
C. second-level consumer
D. third-level consumer
Organism
______ 5. algae
______ 6. grasshopper
______ 7. marsh grass
______ 8. marsh hawk
______ 9. plankton-eating fish
______10. ribbed mussel
______11. shrew
______12. zooplankton
(Decomposers)
Energy Pyramid
1. Name the source of
energy for this ecosystem.
____________
2. How much energy is available to
the first-, second-, and third-level
consumers? To answer this
question, fill in the blanks on the
energy pyramid.
3
Ch. 37 Niches and Community Interactions
Three different finch species live in the same tree. One species feeds
at the top of the tree. The second species feeds in the middle part of
the tree, and the third species feeds at the bottom of the tree. Do all
three species occupy the same niche? Explain.
________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Competition and Predation
Write True if the statement is true. If the statement is false, change the underlined word or words to
make the statement true.
4. Competition occurs when organisms attempt to use the same resources.
5. The competitive exclusion principle states that no two organisms can occupy the
same niche in the same habitat at the same time.
6. If two species of bacteria are grown in the same culture, one species will always
outcompete the other.
7. Water, types of food, sunlight, and nesting space are some of the biological
resources that organisms will compete for..
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line at the left.
8. Poisonous snakes with bright skin color are an example of
A. courtship display
C. camouflage
B. warning coloration
D. mimicry
9. All the ways in which a zebra interacts with its environment constitutes its
A. ecosystem
C. carrying capacity
B. community
D. niche
10. When lions and hyenas fight over a dead zebra, their interaction is called
A. competition
C. mutualism
B. mimicry
D. stabilization
Symbiotic Relationships
A. mutualism
Match the example with the type of relationship.
B. commensalism
C. parasitism
_______ 11. a tick living on the body of a deer
_______ 12. a bee eating a flower’s nectar and picking up the flower’s pollen
_______ 13. a barnacle living on a whale’s skin
_______ 14 a tapeworm living in a person’s intestine
_______ 15. an aphid providing food to an ant in exchange for protection
_______16. an alga and fungus living together to form a lichen
4