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| The study of the interactions between organisms and their environment is called ___. | ecology |
| The combined parts of the Earth that contain life is called ____. | the biosphere |
| If two animals can breed together and produce fertile offspring, they are members of the same ___. | species |
| Members of the same species must be able to mate and produce ____ offspring. | fertile |
| A group of organisms that belong to the same species and live in the same general area is called a(n) ____. | population |
| A group made up of all the different species living in the same area is called a(n) ___. | community |
| The living and non-living things that interact in a certain area is called a(n) ____. | ecosystem |
| A group of ecosystems that have the same climate and rainfall patterns is called a(n) ___. | biome |
| What are the three basic methods that ecologists use to study the environment? | 1) observing 2) experimenting 3) mathematical models |
| Which of the three basic methods that ecologists use to study the environment involves the use of computer simulations? | mathematical models |
Which of the three basic methods that ecologists use to study the environment involves the use of flowcharts like the one below?,  | mathematical models, |
| For two organisms to be considered members of the same species, they must be able to mate and produce ____ offspring. | fertile |
| What are two names that describe organisms that can make their own food? | Producers, Autotrophs |
| What are two processes that autotrophs use to produce their own food? | Photosynthesis, Chemosynthesis |
| What do you call organisms that can produce their own food without light? | chemosynthesizers |
| Most chemosynthesizers are _______. | bacteria |
| Autotrophs use either light energy or chemical energy to produce ___. | carbohydrates |
| During photosynthesis, light energy is used to convert _____ and _____ into ____ and _____. | carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen |
| Another word for consumer is ____. | heterotroph |
| What are two words to describe organisms that must rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply? | Consumers, Heterotrophs |
| What do you call organisms that feed only on plants? | Herbivores |
| What do you call organisms that only feed on other animals? | Carnivores |
| What do you call organisms that feed on both plants and animals? | Omnivores |
| What do you call organisms that feed on the decaying remains of dead animals and plants? | Detrivores |
| What do you call organisms that get energy by breaking down organic matter left over from dead organisms? | Decomposers |
| Describe how energy in an ecosystem moves? | It moves in a one-way path, from the sun or inorganic compounds, to producers and then consumers. |
| Describe how matter moves in an ecosystem? | Matter cycles through an ecosystem, going from producers to the consumers who eat the producers and eventually to decomposers who change the matter into forms the producers can use, to start the cycle all over again. |
| True or false? "Matter is used up in an ecosystem." | False, it keeps cycling from one type of organism to another. |
| True or False? "Energy is used up in an ecosystem." | True, energy travels in a one way direction, and is eventually lost as heat from the different organisms as it travels up the food chain. |
| A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating or being eaten is called a ___. | food chain |
| _______ show the one-way flow of energy through an ecosystem. | Food chains |
| Which way do arrows point in a food chain? | They point from the organism that is being eaten towards the organism that eats them. They show which way energy is being passed along in an ecosystem. |
| A ______ describes the complex feeding relationships among all organisms in an ecosystem, including the decomposers. | food web |
The picture below depicts a ____.,  | food chain, |
The picture below depicts a ____.,  | food web, |
| Each step in a food chain or ecological pyramid is called a ____. | trophic level |
| The first trophic level in a food chain or ecological pyramid is made up of ____. | producers (autotrophs) |
| The second trophic level in a food chain or ecological pyramid is made up of ____. | first level consumers (remember, the first, or bottom level was made of producers) |
| The third trophic level in a food chain or ecological pyramid is made up of ____. | second level consumers (remember, the first level was producers and the second level was first level consumers) |
| If all the plants in a field were determined to contain 10,000 calories of energy, how much energy would you expect to get by eating all the animals that feed on those plants in the field? | 1000 calories (remember the 10% rule) |
| If all the herbivores in an ecosystem had a biomass of 50,000 kg, what would you expect all of the carnivores at the next trophic level to weigh all together? | 5,000 kg (remember the 10% rule) |
| Why do ecological pyramids rarely have more than 4 trophic levels? | Energy usually runs out by the 4th trophic level because 90% is used up at each level and only 10% gets passed on. |
| The original source of energy that flows through an ecosystem comes from ____. | the sun |
| The total amount of living tissue in an ecosystem, expressed in kilograms, is called ____. | biomass |
| The changing of water from gas form (water vapor) to liquid form is called ____. | condensation |
| The changing of water from liquid form to gas form (water vapor) at temperatures below boiling is called ___. | evaporation |
| Evaporation from the surface of plant leaves is called ____. | Transpiration |
| When water condenses and then starts to fall as either rain or snow, these two forms of water can both be called ______. | precipitation |
| When organisms burn their food in the presence of oxygen, the two waste products are carbon dioxide and ___. | water vapor |
| Water that ends up deep below the ground is called ___. | ground water |
| Unlike energy, matter gets _______ within and between ecosystesms. | recycled |
| Matter gets recycled within and between ecosystems through ____ cycles | biogeochemical cycles (bio=living, geo refers to geology and chemical refers to chemistry) |
| The chemical substances that an organism requires to live are called ___. | nutrients |
| Producers require nitrogen to be turned into ____ and ____, which are used to make _____. | nitrates and nitrites, used to make proteins |
| _______ is required by plants in order to make molecules like DNA and RNA plus an energy carrying molecule called ATP. | Phosphorus |
| Which two types of elements are the key ingredients in fertilizer, because plants need them to grow. | Nitrogen and phosphorus |
| The process by which bacteria convert nitrogen gas (N2) into ammonia (NH3) is called ____. | nitrogen fixation |
| The conversion of nitrogen from one form to another in the nitrogen cycle is carried out primarily by ___. | bacteria |
| Which type of plants help make soil more fertile because they can fix nitrogen out of the air and convert it into useable forms? | Legumes (they include peas, beans, lentils, peanuts, alfalfa. Legumes actually don't do the converting themselves, but have bacteria that grow in their root nodules that can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and turn it into fertilizer) |
| A lake that receives a large input of a limiting nutrient, like nitrogen or phosphorus, can develop a(n) ____. | algal bloom |
| The rate at which producers create organic matter (by growing) in an ecosystem is called ____. | primary productivity |
| What is most likely to be a limiting nutrient in a freshwater pond? | phosphorus |
| If a nutrient is in such a short supply in an ecosystem that it affects the growth of organisms, it is called a(n) ___. | limiting nutrient |
| Aquatic ecosystems are most likely to receive heavy doses of limiting nutrients that can cause algal blooms from the runoff from ___. | fertilized fields (like farmland or golf courses) |
| Which gas is given off by decomposers as they decompose dead organisms? | carbon dioxide (because they are getting energy from the dead organisms through cellular respiration) |
| Which two gases are given off when organisms burn food for energy through the process of cellular respiration? | carbon dioxide and water vapor |
| Which two substances are required by producers in order to conduct photosynthesis? | carbon dioxide and water (which are converted to food and oxygen during photosynthesis) |
| Carbon dioxide and water are ____ during photosynthesis. | required |
| Carbon dioxide and water are ___ during cellular respiration. | produced |
| Photosynthesis is pretty much the exact opposite process of ___. | cellular respiration (photosynthesis requires energy to make food from carbon dioxide and water while cellular respiration burns food using oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water along with energy) |
| Where in the carbon cycle is carbon stored in a process that took millions of years to build up? | Carbon took millions of years to build up underground as fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Unfortunately, it is now being released back into the atmosphere quickly over the last two hundred years as we've started burning the fossil fuels for energy) |
| What is the process called where nitrogen containing compounds in dead organisms are converted back into nitrogen gas (N2) so that nitrogen can re-enter the atmosphere? | denitrification |
| Ammonia is converted by bacteria into ________ so that it can be used by plants to grow. | nitrates and nitrites (which are also key ingredients in fertilizer) |
| Why is carbon dioxide increasing in the atmosphere? | Fossil fuels containing carbon are being burned for energy (creating CO2) now-a-days. This has was not happening very much until the start of the industrial revolution. |
| What are 3 human activities most responsible for the recent increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? | Burning fossil fuels, clearing forests by burning them, and industrial processes. |
| Climate is the average, year-to-year, conditions of ____ and ____ in a certain area. | temperature and precipitation |
| ______ is the average, year-to-year, conditions of temperature and precipitation in a certain area. | Climate |
| The natural trapping of heat energy by gases in the Earth’s atmosphere is known as ____. | the greenhouse effect,  |
| Name three greenhouse gases, starting with the one blamed for most of current global warming. | Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor |
| What does this picture depict? (If you can't see it well, you probably didn't open up the flashcards as NON-JAVA), | The greenhouse effect, |
| What are the three global climate zones, starting with the warmest and ending with the coldest? | Tropical, temperate, polar |
| Heat is moved away from the tropics by which two methods? | Wind and ocean currents |
| Wind and ocean currents are caused by the fact that warm fluids ____ and cool fluids _____. | rise, sink |
| The climate on the side of a mountain range getting hit by prevailing winds is ______ than the climate on the other side of the mountain range. | wetter,  |
What are these lines called?,  | lines of latitude, |
| The living things that help shape an ecosystem are known as _________. | biotic factors |
| The non-living things that help shape an ecosystem are known as _______. | abiotic factors |
| An organism's ______ is where it lives and includes both biotic and abiotic factors. | habitat |
| An organism's ____ is kind of like it's job, and includes the way in which an organism eats, finds shelter, and reproduces as well as the physical conditions required by the organism to survive. | niche, 
|
| Two different species ______ share the same niche in the same habitat. | can't |
| Any necessity for life, such as water, nutrients, light, food, and space, are referred to as a _____. | resource |
| The rule in ecology that no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time is known as the ____. | competitive exclusion principle |
| ______ occurs when organisms of the same or different species attempt to use an ecological resource in the same place at the same time. | Competition |
| The type of interaction where one organism captures and eats another organism is known as _____. | predation |
| The type of relationship in which two different species of organisms live closely together is called ____. | symbiosis,
|
| Name the three types of symbiotic relationships.,
| mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism |
| The type of symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit is called ____.,
| mutualism,
|
| The type of symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is neither helped nor harmed is called ___.,
| commensalism,
|
| The type of symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits at the expense of the other is called ____.,
| parasitism,
|
| Fleas, ticks, lice and tapeworms are examples of ____. | parasites,
|
| The organism that a parasite lives on or in is called the ____. | host |
| The series of predictable changes that occur in an ecosystem as it ages is called ____. | ecological succession,  |
| The type of succession that starts from scratch (like on bare rock or ash) is called ____. | primary succession,  |
| The first species to populate an area that previously had no signs of life is called the ____. | pioneer species |
| The type of ecological succession that occurs after a forest fire, or when farmland is abandoned, is called _____ | secondary succession,  |
| The final community of organisms, after the ecosystem has gone through succession and become stabilized, is called the ____. | climax community |
| Climate conditions in a small area that differ significantly from the climate of the surrounding area are called ___. | microclimates |
| Which biome is characterized by very low temperatures, little precipitation, and permafrost? | Tundra,  |
| Which two biomes have the least amount of precipitation? | Desert and tundra |
| A biome is identified by its particular set of abiotic factors and its ___. | characteristic plant and animal communities |
| Palm trees and shrubs around a small pool of water in the middle of a barren desert is an example of ____. | a microclimate |
| Which type of tropical forested biome is characterized by a wet season and a dry season? | Tropical dry forest |
| Tall, perennial grasses and herds of grazing herbivores are inhabitants of the _______ biome. | tropical savanna and temperate grassland |
| Mild, moist air from the Pacific Ocean and giant redwood trees characterize the _____. | northwestern coniferous forest (also known as temperate rainforests),  |
Desert biomes vary greatly in temperature but are always defined as having less than _____ cm of rainfall per year.,  | 25 cm |
| Which type of biome is characterized by thin, nutrient-poor soils? | tropical rainforest,  |
| What adaptation do trees in the tropical rainforest have to deal with the soils they grow on? | Trees in the tropical rainforest have shallow roots that spread out along the ground to get nutrients from the nutrients poor soil before the nutrients are washed away by the heavy rainfall. |
| What do we call the layer in the tropical rainforest that blocks out most of the light from hitting the ground? | The forest canopy (tree tops that spread out like umbrellas),  |
| How do trees in a tropical dry forest conserve water during the dry season? | They drop their leaves to avoid evapotranspiration. |
| What do you call trees that drop their leaves on an annual basis? | Deciduous trees,  |
| Name two things that keep savannas and temperate grasslands from undergoing succession and turning into forests. | Fires and large herds of grazing herbivores |
| Which biome is home to the most different types of species on Earth? | Tropical Rainforests |
Which type of biome is pictured below?,  | Boreal forest (a.k.a. - Taiga). Notice it's all conifers., |
Which type of biome is pictured below?,  | Desert. (I chose this photo to show that deserts aren't always hot. Often times, deserts are found on the lee side of a mountain range in the mountains rainshadow), |
Which type of biome is pictured below?,  | Tropical Savanna, |
Which type of biome is pictured below?,  | Tundra (during the short growing season, there is enough water from permafrost melt for lush shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses to grow), |
| Which type of biome is pictured below?, | Northwest coniferous forest (a.k.a. - temperate rainforests. This photo is taken from Washington state), |
| Which type of biome is pictured below?, | Temperate forest (a.k.a. - Temperate deciduous forest), |
| The layer of permanently frozen subsoil that only thaws a few centimeters during the summer in the tundra is called ____. | permafrost |
| Permafrost is found in the _____ biome. | Tundra, |
| Plants like cactus and aloe vera are called _____ plants. | succulent |
| Which biome is characterized by cool moist winters, hot dry summers, and periodic brush fires? | Temperate Woodland and Shrubland (a.k.a. - Chaparrel). The parts of California that are always catching on fire are an example.,  |
| Which type of biome is characterized by warm to hot summers, cold winters, seasonal precipitation, and very fertile soils? | Temperate Grasslands (think of Iowa),  |
| Which type of biome do we live in? | Temperate forest (a.k.a. - Temperate deciduous forest), |
| Which type of biome is characterized by broadleaf deciduous trees, cold to moderate winters, warm summers, and year-round rainfall? | Temperate forest (a.k.a. - Temperate deciduous forest), |
| Which type of biome is characterized by long cold winters, short mild summers, and mostly coniferous trees? | Boreal forests (a.k.a. - Taiga), |
| What are the four abiotic factors used to classify aquatic ecosystems? | depth, flow, temperature, water chemistry |
| Streams and rivers are examples of _________ ecosystems. | flowing-water ecosystems |
| Lakes and ponds are examples of ______ ecosystems. | standing-water ecosystems |
| Give two examples of standing-water ecosystems. | Lakes and ponds |
| Give two examples of flowing-water ecosystems. | Streams and rivers |
| Where water flows quickly, there is a lot of dissolved _______ but little ____. | oxygen, plant life |
| _____ are free-floating organisms that live in both fresh and saltwater (usually unicellular). | Plankton,
|
| Plankton that are autotrophs (producers) are called ____ and they form the base of most aquatic food chains. | phytoplankton,
|
| Plankton that are heterotrophs (consumers) are called _____. | zooplankton,
|
| An ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year is called a(n) ______. | wetland |
| _________ are formed where a river meets the sea. | Estuaries |
| ______ water is a mixture of fresh and saltwater. | Brackish |
| ________ is partially decomposed organic matter. It washes into estuaries to form the base of the estuary food chain. | Detritus |
| _______ are estuaries that are dominated by grasses. | Salt marshes |
| ________ swamps are coastal areas dominated by salt-tolerant trees with big roots that trap sediments and prevent erosion | Mangrove,  |
| What type of coastal ecosystem is shown below?, | A mangrove swamp. Notice the huge root system coming off the mangrove trees., |
| The _______ zone is the layer of the ocean that light penetrates | photic |
| The _______ zone is the layer of the ocean that light cannot penetrate. | aphotic (pronounced "A-fotic") |
| No autotrophs can grow in the aphotic zone because without light, _________ is impossible. | photosynthesis |
| The part of the ocean that lies beyond the continental shelf is called the ________. | open ocean |
| _______ is the zone between the low tide mark and the edge of the continental shelf. | The coastal ocean |
What type of coastal ecosystem is this seal swimming around in?,  | kelp forest |
What type of coastal ecosystem is pictured below?,  | Coral reef |
| The _______ zone refers to the sea floor. | benthic |
| Organisms that live on, in, or attached to the sea floor are referred to as _____. | benthos |
