Chapter 4 Study Guide

Ecosystems and Communities

1. What are biotic factors and abiotic factors?•Biotic: all living factors; •Abiotic: all non living factors

2. Which biotic factors affect the size of organism populations?

• Predators, birds, trees, bacteria…interaction

3. Several species of warblers can live in the same spruce tree ONLY because they (circle): a. have different habitats within the tree. b. eat different foods within the tree. c. occupy different niches within the tree. d. can find different temperatures within the tree

• c.4. Where does the oceanic zone begin?• At the edge of the continental shelf

5. What does climate produce?• A wide range of environmental conditions that

shapes communities.6. What type of chemistry determines aquatic

ecosystems?• Amount of salts, nutrients, and oxygen dissolved

in the water.7. Which of these two biomes have the least

amount of rainfall: tropical rain forest, temperate grassland, tropical savanna, tropical dry forest, tundra, desert, boreal forest, temperate woodland shrubland

• tundra and desert

8. Name one difference between primary and secondary succession:

• Secondary succession begins on soil, and primary succession begins on newly exposed surfaces

9. Give an example of a place with a microclimate:

• A forested park in a desert city10.Latitude and _________________

cause _______ main climate zones on Earth.

• angle of heating, three 

11. If an insect feeds on a flower’s nectar, what type of symbiosis is this and why?•Mutualism, because the flower provides the insect with food, and the insect pollinates the flower.

12.What factor(s) can influence continual change in an ecosystem?•Further disturbances, long-term climate changes, introduction of nonnative species

 

13.Name three things that unequal heating of the Earth’s surface causes.

• wind and ocean currents, winds that transport heat, effects on Earth’s climate regions.

14.Which of these is NOT an adaptation that organisms have for living in flowing water (circle): a. hooks b. streamlined bodies

c. suckers d. tentacles• d. tentacles

• 15. How can competition between species be reduced if they share the same habitat?

• they can occupy different niches16. What is the difference between a niche and

habitat?• a niche is an organism’s place in the food

web (occupation) and a habitat is its address17. What slows the loss of heat to space?• atmospheric gases