Name: _______________________________________
___ Period
Date: _________________
Unit I Directed Reading Guide
What is Ecology? (p. 64-68)
1.
What is ecology?
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2.
What does the biosphere contain?
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3.
How are human economics and ecology linked?
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4.
Label each level of organization on the diagram.
5.
Explain the relationship between ecosystems and biomes.
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6.
Why might an ecologist set up an artificial environment in a laboratory?
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7.
Use the terms in the box to fill in the Venn diagram. List parts of the environment that consist of biotic factors, abiotic factors, and
some components that are a mixture of both.
Air
Heat
Precipitation
Animals
Mushrooms
Soil
Bacteria
Plants
Sunlight
8.
Why are many ecological phenomena difficult to study?
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9.
Why do ecologists make models?
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10. What makes a planet living? Explain your answer by comparing Earth with Mars.
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Energy, Producers and Consumers (p. 69-72)
1.
What do autotrophs do during photosynthesis?
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2.
Can some organisms survive without energy from the sun? Explain your answer.
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3.
Can organisms create their own energy? Explain your answer.
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4.
What is a consumer?
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5.
How would you categorize a consumer that usually catches and eats prey, but also eats dead animal carcasses?
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6.
Complete the table about types of heterotrophs.
Types of Heterotrophs
Type
Definition
Examples
Herbivore
cows, rabbits
Heterotroph that eats animals
humans, bears, pigs
Omnivore
Detritivore
Decomposer
Heterotroph that consumes the carcasses of dead
animals but does not typically kill them itself
7.
What role do producers play in establishing Earth as a living planet?
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Energy Flow in Ecosystems (p. 73-78)
1.
Complete the table about feeding relationships.
Feeding Relationships
Relationship
Food Chain
Food Web
Description
2.
Draw arrows between the organisms to show how energy moves through this food chain. Write producer, herbivore, or carnivore
under each organism.
3.
Explain how energy flows through this food chain.
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4.
What would happen to this food chain if a disturbance caused a serious decline in the shark population?
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5.
Read each of the following statements and decide if the statement is true or false. Write your answer in the space provided.

_________ Primary consumers always make up the first trophic level in a food web.
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_________ Ecological pyramids show the relative amount of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a given
food web.
_________ On average, about 50% of the energy available within one trophic level is transferred to the next trophic level.
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_________ 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.
6.
A pyramid of _______________ illustrates the relative amount of living organic matter available at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
7.
A pyramid of _______________ shows the relative numbers of individual organisms at the trophic levels in an ecosystem.
8.
A pyramid of _______________ shows the relative amounts of energy available at the trophic levels of a food chain or food web
9.
Identify which type of ecological pyramid best traces the flow of matter through an ecosystem. Explain your answer.
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10. Match each organism with its trophic level. Trophic levels may be used more than once.
Organism
Trophic Level
_____ a.
algae
a. primary producer
_____ b.
grasshopper
b. first-level consumer
_____ c.
marsh grass
c. second-level consumer
_____ d.
marsh hawk
d. third-level consumer
_____ e.
plankton-eating fish
_____ f.
ribbed mussel
_____ g.
shrew
_____ h.
zooplankton
Cycles of Matter (p. 79-86)
1.
Read each of the following statements and decide if the statement is true or false. Write your answer in the space provided.
 _________ Matter moves through an ecosystem in cycles.

2.
_________ The four elements that make up over 95 percent of the body in most organisms are oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and
hydrogen.
 _________ Chemical and physical processes include the formation of clouds and precipitation, “burning” food, and the flow of
running water.
Explain why Earth is considered a closed system.
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3.
How might building a new highway affect the cycles of matter?
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4.
What role do plants play in the water cycle?
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5.
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The carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas came from
A. the combustion of fossil fuels.
B. the remains of dead organisms.
C. carbon-fixing bacteria in swamp soil.
D. carbon dioxide dissolved in ocean water.
6.
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How does most of the carbon in an organism’s body return to the environment after the organism dies?
A. Decomposers break the body down into simpler compounds.
B. Heat from the sun causes the carbon in the body to evaporate.
C. Geological processes cause the body to turn into a fossil fuel.
D. Rainwater dissolves the carbon in the body and carries it to the ocean.
7.
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Human processes mainly contribute to the
A. release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
B. decrease of the total amount of carbon found on Earth.
C. depletion of carbon dioxide reserves in the atmosphere.
D. increase in the amount of carbon contained in rock materials.
8.
Draw a diagram explaining the water cycle. Label the processes involved as biological or physical/chemical.
9.
Complete the chart about the carbon cycle.
Processes That Cause Carbon to Move into the Atmosphere
Process
Processes That Cause Carbon to Move out of the Atmosphere
Description
Respiration
Process
Description
Photosynthesis
the release of CO2 and other gases
into the atmosphere through vents in
Earth's crust
10. What is atmospheric nitrogen fixation, and how does it affect organisms?
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11.
List and describe the biological steps in the nitrogen cycle.
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12. How do humans add nitrogen to the biosphere?
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13. Which parts of the phosphorus cycle are geological processes?
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14. Read each of the following statements and decide if the statement is true or false. Write your answer in the space provided.
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_________ Nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, is found in the soil.
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_________ Plants absorb phosphorus from the atmosphere or water.
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_________ Phosphate is released as rocks and sediments wear down.
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_________ Plants absorb phosphate from the soil or from water.
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_________ Phosphorus is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere.
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_________ Nitrogen fixation is the process in which certain bacteria convert nitrogen gas into nitrates.
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_________ Denitrification is the process by which some soil bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas.
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_________ All organisms require nitrogen to make amino acids, which in turn are used to build carbohydrates.
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_________ Organic phosphate is taken up by producers during photosynthesis and released by cellular respiration.
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_________ Phosphorus forms part of the important life-sustaining molecules such as DNA and RNA.
15. If a nutrient were in short supply in an ecosystem, how might it affect an organism?
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16. When is a substance a limiting nutrient?
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17. Compare and contrast the flow of energy through an environment with the flow of matter through that same environment.
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Limits to Growth (p. 137-141)
1.
2.
In the space provided, write True if the statement is true or False if the statement is false.
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Limiting factors determine the immigration capacity of a population.
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A limiting factor controls the growth of a population.
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Limiting factors operate when growth is exponential.
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Populations grow too large in the absence of limiting factors.
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Competition is an example of a limiting factor.
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Population size can be limited by factors such as predation.
What is a density-dependent limiting factor?
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3.
When do density-dependent factors operate most strongly?
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4.
What are four density-dependent limiting factors?
a.
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b.
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c.
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d.
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5.
Use the graph below to answer the bulleted questions.

What happened to the number of wolves on Isle Royale between 1975 and 1985?
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What happened to the moose population when the number of wolves was low?
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What is the relationship between the moose and the wolves on Isle Royale?
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Is the number of moose on the island a density-dependent or density-independent limiting factor for the wolf? Explain your
answer.
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6.
What term describes a limiting factor that affects all populations in similar ways, regardless of population size?
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7.
What is the usual response in the population size of many species to a density-independent limiting factor?
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8.
Complete the graphic organizer with examples of density-independent limiting factors.
Population Size
can be limited by
density-dependent
factors such as
9.
A population continues at a stable size for many years. Suddenly, in a single season, the population size drops by half. Is the cause
more likely to be density-dependent, density-independent, or both? Explain your answer.
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Chapter Mystery
Directions:
1.
Read the chapter mystery information located on pages 63, 67, 72, 76, 84 & 91. Use the information to answer the following
questions.
Compare the original situation in the bay with the current situation, taking note of changes in both the food web and the nitrogen
cycle.
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2.
Narragansett Bay harbors sea jellies that prefer warm water and have been previously present only in summer and early fall. These sea
jellies eat fish eggs, fish larvae, and zooplankton. If the bay continues to warm, what do you think might happen to the population of
sea jellies in the bay? What might that mean for the organisms the jellies feed on?
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3.
Explain how the Narragansett Bay example demonstrates interconnections among members of a food web and abiotic environmental
factors.
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Essential Questions
1.
How would the removal of a predator in an ecosystem change the available amount of energy at each trophic level?
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2.
How do energy and matter move through the biogeochemical cycles?
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3.
How do the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration work together to cycle matter through an ecosystem?
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4.
How does widespread flooding or extreme drought affect the cycling of matter and the flow of energy in an ecosystem?
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Unit 1 Directed Reading Guide Rubric
Exceeds Standard
100%
Meets Standard
75%
Book Section Completeness
(50 pts)
All questions in all
sections completed.
No more than 5 questions
are incomplete.
Essential Questions
(10 pts)
All essential questions
were answered correctly.
Chapter Mystery
(10 pts)
All chapter mystery
questions are answered. A
maximum of two errors
exist.
One of the essential
questions was answered
incorrectly or left blank.
All but one or two chapter
mystery questions are
answered.
A maximum of two errors
exist in the answered
questions.
Approaches Standard
50%
6-20 questions are
incomplete in the entire
DRG are incomplete.
Work was done in each
section.
Two of the essential
questions were answered
incorrectly or left blank.
Three to half of the
chapter mystery questions
are incomplete.
A maximum of two errors
exist in the answered
questions.
Doesn’t Meet Standard
25%
More than 20 questions
are incomplete.
or
An entire section was left
incomplete.
Three of the essential
questions were answered
incorrectly or left blank.
More than half of the
chapter mystery questions
are incomplete.
Incomplete
0%
More than one section was
incomplete.
No essential questions
were answered.
No chapter mystery
questions were answered