Biology

Ecology
Revisio
n Notes
Topic Notes: Ecology

4.1 Understand the terms: population, community, habitat and

ecosystem.
4.2 Recall the use of quadrats to estimate the population size
of an organism in two different areas.
4.3 Describe the use of quadrats as a technique for sampling
the distribution of organisms in their habitats.
4.4 Recall the names given to different trophic levels to
include producers, primary, secondary and tertiary
consumers and decomposers.
4.5 Understand the concepts of food chains, food webs,
pyramids of number, pyramids of biomass and pyramids
of energy transfer.
4.6 Understand the transfer of substances and of energy along
a food chain.
4.7 Explain why only about 10% of energy is transferred from
one trophic level to the next.
4.8 Describe the stages in the water cycle, including
evaporation, transpiration, condensation and precipitation.
4.9 Describe the stages in the carbon cycle, including
respiration, photosynthesis, decomposition and
combustion.
4.10 Describe the stages in the nitrogen cycle, including the
roles of nitrogen fixing bacteria, decomposers, nitrifying
bacteria and denitrifying bacteria (specific names of
bacteria are not required).

4.1 Understand the terms: population, community, habitat and

ecosystem.
Ecosystem:
The interaction between all the members or
organisms in the community and their abiotic
environment (e.g. humidity)

Population:
A group of organisms of the same species
that live in the same area (e.g. forest) at
the same time.

Community:
The number of different organisms
(population) living in a given area (habitat)
that are all ecologically integrated. It
includes microorganisms, plants, and
animals.

Habitat:
The place where specific organisms live.
They can be physical-pond- or provided by
the organisms themselves-dead leaves for
decomposers.

4.2 Recall the use of quadrats to estimate the population size

of an organism in two different areas.
When an ecologist wants to know how many organisms there
are in a
particular habitat, it would not be feasible to count them all as
this would take
a very long time and there is bound to be errors in the counting
due to human
error.
Instead it is easier to count a smaller representative part of the
population,
called a sample. Sampling of plants and animals that dont
move at all or little
(snails) ,is done by using a quadrat-square grid that varies in
size.
Problems of using quadrats
Bias placing- for example placing a quadrat on top of an
area with a lot of plants or placing it next to a path
Ways of getting random places:
Using a random number integer (however you will never
get 0,0)
Having more smaller squares inside the quadrat to
improve accuracy
Number of organisms/m2 = total number of organisms counted
number of quadrats used

4.3 Describe the use of quadrats as a technique for sampling

the distribution of organisms in their habitats.

4.4 Recall the names given to different trophic levels to

include producers, primary, secondary and tertiary
consumers and decomposers.

Producer:
An organism that synthesizes complete organic
molecules
from simple inorganic ones. For
example a green plant
doing photosynthesis
provides its own food.
Consumer:
An organism that eats the producer as food.
Primary
consumers are always herbivores as
they eat the producers
which are plants. Secondary
consumers are carnivores
because they eat
the primary consumers which are animals.
Decomposers:
An organism that metabolizes organic
compounds in debris
and dead organisms,
releasing margaric material; found
among the
bacteria and fungi.
4.5 Understand the concepts of food chains, food webs,
pyramids of number, pyramids of biomass and pyramids
of energy transfer.

A food chain links all the trophic levels together-i.e. producer to

consumer-predator. It shows the flow of matter and energy.
However a food chain only shows one trophic level eating the
other. However this is not always the case.

Food webs are a more accurate way of showing different trophic

levels. They are basically a combination of multiple food chains
drawn up in a way that is easy to understand. They can show
that one organism has multiple preys and is preyed upon by
multiple predators. They also help us to understand that a top
predator can also eat producers e.g. a human eating a lettuce
leaf.

A pyramid of number represents the number of organisms in

each trophic level in a food chain, irrespective of their mass.

A pyramid of biomass shows the total mass of organism in each

trophic level, irrespective of their numbers.