Exam 23: Ecosystems and Populations

Most primary producers are plants that generate simple, high energy carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis. This biochemical event essentially captures sunlight and uses the energy to fuel pathways that lead to the production of useful products. How are plants able to capture sunlight to initiate this process?

The population of a particular species that an ecosystem can sustain indefinitely is called its

With the exception of lipids, plants are capable of producing all the organic molecules they need using water and minerals from the soil and energy stored in the sugar molecules they make through photosynthesis.

For an organism reaching its biotic potential, the growth rate is characterized by a(n)________ curve.

The total biomass at each level of an ecosystem or the total amount of energy stored at each level of an ecosystem can be depicted with the use of a(n) ________.

Which statement describes the expected population growth in the next 50 years?

Population sizes begin to stabilize near the carrying capacity when

Approximately ________% of the stored energy of an organism at one level of a food web is transferred to the tissues of the organism that consumes it at the next level of the food web.

The process by which there is a natural sequence of change in the type of organisms within a particular community is called ________.

Nutrients cycle most rapidly with the reservoir pool of a biogeochemical cycle and least rapidly with the biomass pool.

In a given geographic location, the combination of all living organisms plus the physical environment in which they live is termed a(n) ________.

Omnivores differ from carnivores in that omnivores derive their energy from

Most precipitation reaching land results from

In plants, ammonium is often converted to nitrate before it can be used by the plant. This process is known as

Succession leads to the establishment of a(n)

Which one of the following is TRUE regarding the flow of energy through an ecosystem?

Organisms that feed on the bodies of dead organisms are known as

A species moving into a new habitat will be able to adapt only if there is genetic change in the population.