Name: _____________________ Block: __________________Date:____________

Study Guide Worksheet

UNIT 5 ECOSYSTEMS

Worksheet 1 (pgs 1-5)

Use the introduction on pgs 2 and 3 to answer questions 1-5

1. Describe photosynthesis in your own words. Remember to include what organisms can perform it, what the start and end products are, and why it’s important. Minimum requirement, 6 complete sentences

2. Are green plants producers of food, or consumers? ________________________

3. Give 3 examples of consumers: _____________, _______________, ______________

4. Fill in the blanks in order of the energy system in an ecosystem. Word bank: sun, consumers, decomposers, producers____________________->___________________-.________________->________________

5. What 4 substances are cycled between living and nonliving environments?

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What are food chains?

6. The living and nonliving things in an area make up the _________________.7. A model that shows the path of energy and nutrients in an ecosystem is called a

_______________ _______________.8. The energy of a food chains starts with the ________________.9. What organisms use the Sun’s energy to make their own food? Consumers / producers

(circle one)10. What is a consumer?

11. What is a decomposer?

Obtaining Energy

12. Living organisms need a constant supply of ______________.13. The energy rich molecule organisms use is called ______________. It is made of up a

combination of which elements?14. When is the energy of the sugar molecules released? In other words, what must happen to the

molecule for the energy to be released?

15. Briefly describe what a producer is in 3-4 sentences

16. Briefly describe what a consumer is in 3-4 sentences

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Name: _____________________ Block: __________________Date:____________

Study Guide Worksheet

UNIT 5 ECOSYSTEMS

Worksheet 2 (pgs 6-11)

1. What is a herbivore? List 3 examples

2. Name some environments herbivores can be found. List 3 examples

3. What is a carnivore? List 3 examples

4. Carnivores that eat primary consumers are called _________________. These carnivores eat __________________.

5. Give an example of #4. This may not be in the study guide, so you need to think of the definition and think of the answer of animals you know from your knowledge

6. Some carnivores eat other carnivores. These are called ___________________.

7. Give 3 examples of #6.

8. What are omnivores? List 3 examples of an omnivore.

9. Are humans herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores? Why?

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10. Omnivores can be both predator and prey TRUE OR FALSE

11. What is a predator?

12. What is a prey?

13. Are predators and prey consumers or producers? Why?

14. A ________________ includes all the members of a single species in an area at a given time (hint page 9)

15. Why are predators an important part of a food chain? (read the box on page 9 about the predator and prey relationship)

16. What other things besides predators affect the prey population? List 3.

17. _________________ break down different types of organisms.

18. Indicate what each decomposer below breaks down:a. Earth worms: _______________b. Fungi: ______________

19. _________________ are animals that feed on the remains of dead animals they did not hunt or kill.

20. List 3 examples of #19

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Name: _____________________ Block: __________________Date:____________

Study Guide Worksheet

UNIT 5 ECOSYSTEMS

Worksheet 3 (pg 12-17)

What are Food Webs

1. True or False: In most food chains, each type of organism is eaten by more than one type of consumer

2. Define food web

3. Look at the food web on page 12. What does a food web tell you?

4. What happens when the population of one organism in a food web changes? For example, what happens if the top carnivores in a food web are removed or gone extinct? How does it affect the rest of the food web?

5. Look at the food web diagram on page 13. Which organisms would be affected by the removal of the kelp?

6. What happened in the 1800s when too many sea otters were hunted for their fur? How did it affect the sea urchin population?

7. How did the change in the sea urchin population affect the sea kelp population?8. What happened to the small fish that ate the kelp?

9. What happened to the small organisms that depended on the kelp?

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10. Based on questions 6-9, what can you determine about the importance of the sea otter to control the ecosystem and balance of the population? (HINT CRITICAL THINKING )

Why do organisms compete?

11. The fight for limited resources is called _________________.12. Who competes in an ecosystem? Give an example13. A _______________ _________________ is any resource that limits the growth of

populations

14. Give an example of #13 in a forest

15. What are abiotic factors?

16. What are biotic factors?

17. What is the carrying capacity of a population?

How do populations grow?

1. A population grows when the number of _________________ in that population is _______________than the number of deaths.

2. _________________growth means that the larger the population gets, the faster it grows.

3. What conditions must be met for a population to grow exponentially? Think about the population’s access to food and living space.

4. Is human population experiencing exponential growth? What is the population estimated to be by the year 2050?

5. What are some of the effects of population growth for humans?

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Name: _____________________ Block: __________________Date:____________

Study Guide Worksheet

UNIT 5 ECOSYSTEMSWorksheet 4 (pgs 18-24)

THE NITROGEN CYCLE1. The nitrogen cycle describes how nitrogen moves between 5 different medium. Name them

below:

2. Name the 4 different states of Nitrogen

3. Looking at the nitrogen cycle on page 18, what is the most important part of the cycle? Why?

4. Where do animals get their nitrogen from?

Name the following using this word bank: Fixation, Assimilation, Denitrification, Nitrification, Assimilation

5. I am the first step in the process of making nitrogen usable by plants. Here bacteria change nitrogen into ammonia : _______________________

6. This is the process in which ammonia gets changed into nitrates by bacteria so plants can use it : _____________________

7. This is the process in which plants absorb nitrates from the soil into their roots so it can get used by the plant: ________________________

8. This is part of the decaying process where decomposers like fungi and bacteria turn the nitrogen back into ammonia so it can re-enter the nitrogen cycle

9. This is when extra nitrogen is put back into the air, which is also performed by bacteria: __________________

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10. Name 3 reasons why nitrogen is important to life:

11. How have humans altered the nitrogen cycle? Name 2 ways

THE WATER CYCLE12. Fill in the blanks for the water cycle (This should be review from 5th grade!)

Word bank: Precipitation, evaporate, clouds

Water on the land which the sun will heat up causing it to _____________________ to water vapor. The vapor then will go into the atmosphere and eventually becomes __________________. They will get so full of water and eventually will drop the water to the earth through a process called _________________. This could be rain, sleet, or snow. Then the water will ________________ again and start the process all over.

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13. What are the 3 main ways water turns into vapor and briefly explain them:

1.

2.

3.

What happens to the water that is not participating in the water cycle?

THE CARBON CYCLE

14. Why is carbon so important?

15. How much of the human body contains carbon?

16. When nature takes carbon out of atmosphere, these processes are sometimes called ____________ _______________.

17. What are two processes that nature takes carbon out of atmosphere?

18. Carbon dioxide in the air reacts with the sea water to make ________________ ___________ in the ocean.

19. What happens when there is too much of #18?

20. What is one benefit of #18?

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21. When carbon is added back into the atmosphere, these processes are sometimes called ______________ .

22. Name 3 ways in which carbon is added back into the atmosphere

23. Without carbon, what would our climate look like on Earth?

24. Name 2 ways mankind alters the carbon balance on Earth?

Look at the figure on page 24. Summarize the letters below:

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

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Name: _____________________ Block: __________________Date:____________

Study Guide Worksheet

UNIT 5 ECOSYSTEMS

Worksheet 5 (pgs 25-36)

Read the introduction and answer the following questions:

1. Name 4 environmental factors that affect an organism’s ability to survive in its environment

2. What is a limiting factor?

3. Read the example of high elevations and low temperatures as the limiting factor of a mountain biome. What do these conditions limit the plants to?

4. Factors that limit one population in a community may also have a(n) _______________ effect on another population.

5. What effect would a lack of water have on rabbits? Why?

World Biomes and Ecosystems

6. How an organism interacts with the sun, soil, water, air and each other in a specific area is called an __________________.

7. What does the word interact mean anyway ? (LOOK IT UP!!)8. A __________________ is a way to describe a large group of similar ecosystems. They have

similar weather, rainfall, animals and plants.9. List 7 land biomes10. List 3 aquatic biomes11. Features of the environment that are alive or were once alive are called _____________ factors.12. The nonliving, physical features of the environment are called _____________ factors.13. What does the prefix “a” mean?? _________ Using the answer to this, define the answer to

#12.14. List 3 biotic and 3 abiotic factors below

There are 7 abiotic factors listed in your study guide. They are also listed below. Answer the questions related to them below

What am I?

Word bank: Air, sunlight, soil, climate, latitude, elevation, wind, water

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15. I contain 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.94% argon and 0.03% carbon. Within me, CO2 is required for photosynthesis. Oxygen is needed for cellular respiration. Without me, these processes would not exist for life on this planet : __________________

16. I am essential for life on Earth. I am a major ingredient inside the fluid of your cells. Respiration, digestion and photosynthesis cannot happen without me. : ______________________

17. I am a mixture of minerals and rock particles and the remains of dead organisms, water and air. I am the topmost layer of Earth’s crust, and support plant growth. I am an abiotic factor, but I do have some living organisms inside me such as worms and insects, and the remains of decaying matter. The decaying matter I contain is called humus : _________________

18. I am radiant energy that is required for photosynthesis. Producers need me because they make their own food. Photosynthesis cannot occur without me: ____________________

19. I describe the geographic location based on the distance from the equator. This affects the climate, which affects temperature. _____________________

20. I am the distance above sea level. The higher you go, the thinner the air, less molecules and cooler temperatures. Trees are also shorter at higher levels of this, and some places contain snow and many plants cannot grow. __________________________

21. I refer to an area’s average weather conditions over time, including temperature, rainfall or other precipitation and wind. ________________________

22. I am air current motions that are created when sunlight heats some portions of Earth’s surface more than others. In areas that receive more heat, the air becomes warmer. This causes the cold air to sink beneath the warm air, forcing the warm air upward. ______________________

Name the following interactions: BIOTIC, ABIOTIC, BOTH

1. Sunlight fuels the synthesis of sugars and proteins inside plant cells once it is taken up by plant leaves. _________________________

2. Trees and other plants release water vapor from their leaves (a process called transpiration) that create humidity (which in turn influences how much rain falls in an area) _____________

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3. Animals produce waste (go to the bathroom) which in turn will become nutrients in the soil. __________________

4. The formation of the Grand Canyon. ______________________

5. The almost uncountable number of moons encircling Jupiter. ______________

6. The vast size of the Milky Way galaxy. _______________

7. The growth process of the human brain during week 25 of pregnancy. ______________

8. The movement of an amoeba through pond water by changing the shape of their body, forming pseudopods. _____________________

Population size and limiting factors

9. Why do ecologists need to measure the size of a population?

10. What is the population density?

11. A ____________________ ____________________ is anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population.

12. True or False: Limiting factors can be living or nonliving features of an ecosystem.13. What is the carrying capacity?

14. What is a population’s biotic potential?

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