Environmental Science

Name___________
DUE October 31, 2014

Chapter 3 Questions

1. Identify and describe the five (5) levels of organization that are the focus of ecology.
>Population- group of individuals of the same species that live in the same place at the
same time.
>Organism- living thing
>Community- consists all the populations of different species that live in a particular
place.
>Ecosystem- community of different species interacting with one another and with their
nonliving environment of soil, water, other forms of matter, and energy.
>Biosphere- consists of the parts of the earths air, water, and soil where life is found.
2. Define the term biome. What are the two major abiotic factors that contribute to
differences between biomes?
>Biome-large regions such as forests, deserts, and grasslands, with distinct climates and
certain species adapted to them.
>Climate and terrain
In what biome do you reside? What are the dominate producer, primary consumer,
secondary consumer and tertiary consumer organisms of this biome?
>Deciduous Forest; Grass, rabbits, spiders, hawks
3. If the biosphere is a system, is it a closed system or an open system in regard to
input/output of energy? What about in regard to input/output of matter? Explain.
>Open system; Closed system; With the energy, it is always cycling and in regard to
matter, it goes in and then does not come out.
4. Use the Glossary to find the Law of Tolerance and describe it. Explain how this
relates to the trout population shown in Figure 3-10. Provide a graph to illustrate how
this law might apply to a population of wild rabbits, lilac plants, or red-eyed tree frogs
(choose one). LABEL AXES.
>Law of Tolerance- existence, abundance, and distribution of a species in an ecosystem
are determined by whether the levels of one or more physical or chemical factors fall
within the range tolerated by the species.
>Trout can only handle a certain range of temperature and if the temperature of the
water is over or under this range, then there will be less population of trout because
typical trout cannot tolerate those temperatures.

5. Compare and contrast each of the following groups of ecosystem components. (This
means you describe how they are similar and how they are different). Give an example
for each.
a) producers and consumers
>Producers are autotrophs and consumers are heterotrophs.
b) detritivores and decomposers
>Both use dead/decomposing sources for energy. Decomposers give the energy back to
the environment and detritivores use the energy for themselves.
c) photosynthesis and chemosynthesis
>Photosynthesis needs the sun and chemosynthesis does not. Both produce nutrients.
d) aerobic respiration and anaerobic respiration
>Aerobic respiration converts glucose with oxygen, while anaerobic does not need
oxygen. Both are used to convert energy.
6. Explain the difference between gross primary productivity and net primary
productivity.
>GPP is the rate at which an ecosystems producers convert solar energy into chemical
energy as biomass found in their tissues. Meanwhile, NPP is the rate at which producers
use photosynthesis to produce and store chemical energy minus the rate which they use
some of this stored chemical energy through aerobic respiration.
Which terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems have the highest average net primary
productivity?
>Estuaries
What causes these ecosystems to be more productive than the others?
>The amount of solar radiation available to terrestrial plant producers is highest at the
equator.
Globally, which ecosystem produces more of the earths biomass per year than any other
ecosystem? Why is this so?
>Tropical rain forest because there are countless organisms transferring energy.