3 marks

1. A food web is a graphical description of feeding relationships among

species in an ecological community, that is, of who eats whom (Fig. 1). It is
also a means of showing how energy and materials (e.g., carbon) flow
through a community of species as a result of these feeding relationships.
Typically, species are connected by lines or arrows called "links", and the
species are sometimes referred to as "nodes" in food web diagrams.
The pioneering animal ecologist Charles Elton (1927) introduced the concept of the
food web (which he called food cycle) to general ecological science. As he
described it: "The herbivores are usually preyed upon by carnivores, which get
the energy of the sunlight at third-hand, and these again may be preyed upon by
other carnivores, and so on, until we reach an animal which has no enemies, and
which forms, as it were, a terminus on this food cycle. There are, in fact, chains of
animals linked together by food, and all dependent in the long run upon plants. We
refer to these as 'food-chains', and to all the food chains in a community as the 'foodcycle.'"
2. Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain,
freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It is the primary connection in the
water cycle that provides for the delivery of atmospheric water to
the Earth. Most precipitation falls as rain.
3. POPULATIONS A population comprises all the individuals of a given species
in a specific area or region at a certain time. Its significance is more than that
of a number of individuals fuel- because not all individuals are identical.
Populations contain genetic variation within and themselves and between
other populations. Even fundamental genetic characteristics such as hair color
or size may differ slightly from individual to individual. More importantly, not all
members of the population are equal in their ability to survive then and
reproduce.
4. BIOMES : Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar
climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and
soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the
earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread
over a large area creating a typical ecosystem over that area. The biomes we
leirned about shelter an astounding variety of living organisms. From the
driest desert to the dripping rainforests, from the highest mountain peaks to
the deepest ocean trenches life occurs in a marvelous spectrum of sizes,

colors, shapes, life cycles, and interrelationships.. Biodiversity the variety of

living things also makes the world a more beautiful and exciting place to live.
5.