Exam 5: How Ecosystems Work

Define ecological niche and explain the role of limiting resources as well as resource partitioning in the determination of an organism's ecological niche.Use examples to illustrate your response.

What is stated by the First Law of Thermodynamics?

How can humans interfere with the phosphorus cycle?

Which of the following is not a source of carbon for the carbon cycle?

How is carbon transferred from living organisms to the atmosphere?

What type of chemical energy is stored in a plant?

What is a species?

According to the laws of thermodynamics which of the following can be recycled?

Which of the following BEST describes an ecosystem?

Keystone species:

Being that wolves are a keystone species in North America,after their reintroduction into the Yellowstone ecosystem,which of the following events occurred?

Explain the meaning and importance of "nitrogen fixation." Give a specific example of an organism capable of this process and discuss the relationship this organism has with plants.

Define competition.Compare and contrast intraspecific competition and interspecific competition.

The nitrogen cycle is one of the most important and complex of the biogeochemical cycles.Why is nitrogen important?

Which of the following describes intraspecific competition?

Which of the following is an example of interspecific competition?

All of the following are example of resource partitioning EXCEPT:

Define keystone species and discuss an example of an organism that is a keystone species.

What important process are producers involved with in the ecosystem?

Which of the following series is organized in successive steps according to the levels of organization used by ecologists?