Final Study Guide
Prep #1: Experimentation and
Ecology
1. Identify the following:
1. Producers (Autotrophs):
Make their own food using photosynthesis
2. Consumer (Heterotroph):
Eat producers. Known as plant eaters
3. 2o Consumer (Carnivor):
Eat other heterotrophs
4. Decomposers (Fungi, bacteria)
Breaks down dead organisms
Food Web
Producers  Consumer (Heterotroph)  2o Consumer (Carnivor)
4. What is a food web?
A. Contains all possible food chains
B. A simple model that shows how matter
and energy move through an ecosystem
C. Characteristics shared by living and
nonliving things
D. It’s what a spider refers to as dinner.
A. Contains all possible food chains
12. A food chain is shown below:
GrassesCricketsField MiceHawks
Which of the following changes to the food chain will have
the most severe effect?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Drastic decrease in rainfall, causing drought
Hunting of hawks by game hunters
Introduction of a second predator that eats field mice
A disease that reduces the cricket population
A*. Drought will kill the grasses that form the base of the
food chain. (The most severe impact will happen closest
to the beginning of the food chain because it affects the
rest of the organisms up the chain)
Arrows in a food chain or food web
represent what?
Arrows represent the flow of energy
to the next trophic level
(producers 1o Consumer  2o Consumer…)
In this food web, name four things that would
happen if the Pine Borer (insect) went extinct?
1. Pine = 
2. Kinglet = 
3. Salamander = 
4. Snake = 
Food Webs:
insects  Birds
grasses

 Hawks

rats  snakes
1. What would happen if rats decreased
=  grasses
=  snakes,  hawks
2. What would happen if snakes decreased =  rats,  grasses
=  Hawks
3. Decrease grasses
=  all animals
Which trophic level has the most energy?
A. Plants
B. Herbivores
C. Omnivores
D. carnivores
A. Plants
# of organisms (biomass)= energy
How much energy is passed from one
trophic level to the next?
A. 1%
B. 5%
C. 10%
D. 25%
C. 10%
2. Nature Cycles
Water Cycle
Evaporation/transpirationCondensationPrecipitationRunoffGround
WaterOcean
Carbon-Oxygen Cycle
Hint: CO2
CO2 (Pollution, respiration)  Atmosphere  Plants (Photosynthesis)
Phosphorus Cycle
Hint: Rocks
Phosphorus in soil  sediments/rocks  mountains
 weathering/runoff
Nitrogen Cycle
Hint: Atmospheric Nitrogen conveted to Nitrates
Atmospheric Nitrogen  Nitrogen fixing bacteria 
Ammonia/Nitrates  Plants  Animals
3. Biosphere
Biosphere:
Part of Earth that supports life
Biosphere 3 Parts
1. Lithosphere- Earth’s crust
2. Hydrosphere- Water on Earth
3. Atmosphere- Air surrounding Earth
Abiotic Factor:
Biotic Factor:
Non-living
Living
4. Habitat and Niche
5. Carrying Capacity
HabitatNiche-
Place where organism lives
Role organism plays in habitat
Carrying Capacity-
Amount of organisms an environment can support
What affects carrying capacity?
Amt. of resources available
6. Immigration vs. Emmigration
Immigration-
INTO a population
Emmigration-
Exit a population
7. Biodiversity
Biodiversity-
Area with greater variety of orgnisms
Threats to biodiversity:
• Basically anything that leads to habitat loss
• i.e cutting down forrest for farm land or company taking over land
Which has more biodiversity:
An area of Texas with more species of plants
than animals
or
An area of California with a greater variety of
species
An area of California with a greater variety of
species