Ecology Review

Front

What is a keystone species?

Back

A species that plays a critical role in the health, maintenance, growth, or definition of an ecosystem.

Front

What is a decomposer?

Back

An organism that helps to recycle nutrients within an ecosystem by eating dead or decaying organisms.

Front

What is parasitism?

Back

A type of symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits at the expense of another, such as tapeworms in the human intestine.

Front

What happens to the amount of available energy in an energy pyramid as it moves up through the different levels?

Back

It decreases.

Front

If there is 1000 Kcal available in the producers in trophic level 1, how much energy is available in the herbivores in trophic level 2?

Back

100 Kcal.

Front

What is an autotroph?

Back

An organism that produces its own food, typically through photosynthesis, such as plants.

Front

Define mutualism.

Back

A symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit from the interaction.

Front

What is commensalism?

Back

A symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.

Front

What is an invasive species?

Back

A non-native species that spreads widely in a new habitat and can cause harm to the environment, economy, or human health.

Front

What is a food chain?

Back

A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.