Ecology, Evolution, Natural Selection
Questions and Answers
Ecosystem - ✅✅A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment,
linked by energy flow and cycling nutrients to sustain life
Biosphere - ✅✅part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere
primary producers (autotrophs) - ✅✅the first producers of energy-rich compounds that are later
used by other organisms
Heterotroph - ✅✅An organism that cannot make its own food.
first law of thermodynamics - ✅✅Energy cannot be created or destroyed
second law of thermodynamics - ✅✅when energy is transformed, the quantity of energy remains the
same, but its ability to do work diminishes
GPP - ✅✅gross primary productivity - total amount of energy that the plants in an ecosystem fix
cellular respiration - ✅✅Process that releases energy by breaking down glucose and other food
molecules in the presence of oxygen
NPP - ✅✅net primary productivity - NPP = GPP - Energy
Biomass - ✅✅organic matter that can be a source of energy
detrivores/decomposers - ✅✅consumers that get their energy from detritus
, detritus - ✅✅Dead organic matter
Abiotic - ✅✅Non-living things
trophic level - ✅✅Each step in a food chain or food web
food chain - ✅✅A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
grazing food chain - ✅✅The ecological network of herbivores and the predators and parasites that
consume them.
decomposer food chain - ✅✅An ecological network of detritus, decomposers that eat detritus, and
predators and parasites of the decomposers.
food web - ✅✅A community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains
productivity - ✅✅rate of biomass produced by reproduction per square meter of are per year
(g/m^2/year)
efficiency - ✅✅fraction of biomass transferred from one trophic level to the next (no dimension)
Ecotherms - ✅✅cold blooded animals
Endotherms - ✅✅warm blooded animals
biogeochemical cycle - ✅✅process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of
matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another
soil organic matter - ✅✅a complex mixture of partially and completely decomposed detritus
Questions and Answers
Ecosystem - ✅✅A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment,
linked by energy flow and cycling nutrients to sustain life
Biosphere - ✅✅part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere
primary producers (autotrophs) - ✅✅the first producers of energy-rich compounds that are later
used by other organisms
Heterotroph - ✅✅An organism that cannot make its own food.
first law of thermodynamics - ✅✅Energy cannot be created or destroyed
second law of thermodynamics - ✅✅when energy is transformed, the quantity of energy remains the
same, but its ability to do work diminishes
GPP - ✅✅gross primary productivity - total amount of energy that the plants in an ecosystem fix
cellular respiration - ✅✅Process that releases energy by breaking down glucose and other food
molecules in the presence of oxygen
NPP - ✅✅net primary productivity - NPP = GPP - Energy
Biomass - ✅✅organic matter that can be a source of energy
detrivores/decomposers - ✅✅consumers that get their energy from detritus
, detritus - ✅✅Dead organic matter
Abiotic - ✅✅Non-living things
trophic level - ✅✅Each step in a food chain or food web
food chain - ✅✅A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
grazing food chain - ✅✅The ecological network of herbivores and the predators and parasites that
consume them.
decomposer food chain - ✅✅An ecological network of detritus, decomposers that eat detritus, and
predators and parasites of the decomposers.
food web - ✅✅A community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains
productivity - ✅✅rate of biomass produced by reproduction per square meter of are per year
(g/m^2/year)
efficiency - ✅✅fraction of biomass transferred from one trophic level to the next (no dimension)
Ecotherms - ✅✅cold blooded animals
Endotherms - ✅✅warm blooded animals
biogeochemical cycle - ✅✅process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of
matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another
soil organic matter - ✅✅a complex mixture of partially and completely decomposed detritus
