Unit 1 Ecology

WB 1.1 Food chains and webs

1. 7.01 TB:
1) produce their own organic compounds (photosynthesis)
2) primrose leaf > slug > frog > fox
3) break down detritus into inorganic compounds like minerals and CO
2

4) sea weed / b. octopus, crab, starfish
5) go from left to right, using different routes
2. 7.02 TB:
1) each trophic level wastes energy > eating bread we waste less (being primary
consumers) than eating beef
3. Decomposers (bacteria and fungi)
4. 7.03 TB:
1) plants: CO
2
taken up / animals: food (plants, animals)
2) CO
2
taken up by photosynthesis should equal the CO
2
produced by respiration
5. 7.04 TB:
1) its part of proteins
2) take up ammonium or nitrate
3) eating proteins
4) by nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil and in root nodules, by lightning,
5) by denitrifying bacteria (in waterlogged soil)


WB 1.2 Environment
1. 7.05 TB:
1) a part of the environment where a community of organisms lives > meadow, pond,
forest
2) community contains different species, population is a group of organisms of one
species
3) things like temperature and humidity decide which organism can live where
4) its about the shape of the land (hills and valleys), producing meso and micro climates
(differences caused by e.g. exposure to sun and wind)
2. South slope will heat up sooner and because of the sand dry out sooner: hard for seeds to
germinate
3. Bare soil: more heating up and cooling down. Insects etc will be better off in the grass.
Deeper in the soil changes are minimal: nice for worms, moles etc to survive winter.









WB 1.3 Population changes
1. 7.06 TB:
1) factors limiting population growth
2) the maximum size of a population an area can support
3) food, nesting places, space, shelter, predators
4) more stress on populations of the different species: numbers will go down - but also:
specialisation occurs
5) discussion
2. Light, water, CO2, heat, draught, minerals, diseases, insects
3. Is bigger and eats moving prey
4. Shelter, shade, nest, less changes in temperature and humidity
5. Other habitat, other preys and ways to catch these