Ecosystems and sustainability

What can be though of as an eco system? What scales can they be on? Give example? Give the three components of an ecosystem? Define them? What is the role that each species plays in an ecosystems? Why is it hard to define each niche entirely? What could a description of a niche include? What is impossible? Depending on their niche what can living organisms in an ecosystem do to each other? What sort of factors? What do they include? Other factors? What do they describe? Such as? What do ecosystems not have? What Is it impossible to do? What can they be thought of?

What do population sizes do in ecosystems? Why? meaning? Give biotic example? Meaning? Give abiotic example? What would grow? What would they do? What would this help?

What happens to matter in ecosystems? Give example? What isn’t recycled? What does it do? What do all living thigs need? Via? What do they release energy from? Such as? Where did this energy come from originally? At the start of nearly all food chains is? Which captures? Through? Converts it to? stored where? What are producers? Give examples? give examplse of consumers? What are primary consumers? What do they feed on? Who are they eaten by? What are they? What are these in turn eaten by? What are other living called? Give examples? what do they feed on?

What does a food chain show? What is the level at which an organism feeds? Within an ecosystem are organisms part of one food chain? Do they feed at one level? Same chain? How can they be drawn? What do they help us understand?

What is lost at each trophic level? What is it there unavailable to? what do organisms need energy at each level? Why? what releases energy? From where? Like? What is some of this converted to? where does energy remain stored? What is this only available to? such as? What does the waste material include? What does this mean for living tissue at high levels? So what happesn to it? What dose it mean if organisms in a food chain are about the same size? What do ecologists draw? To represent? What does the area of each bar in the pyramid proportional to?what can pyramids be drawn for?

What doesn’t always provide an accurate picture about how much living tissue exists? What is a better approach? What is the area of the bars proportional to? how would you do this properly? Whats the downside to this? What do they often do then? And then calculate what? based on? What problems do pyramrids of biomass still present? So what do ecologists prefer to use? What does this involve? What is this calculated by? Whats thw downside here? What are the limtiitations of pyramids of energy? What do ecologists look at then? Drawing what? what is the rate of energy flow called? What does it give an idea of? Whats it measured in? what is at the base? Whats it called? What si the gross primary productivity? Why is less energy avalible to the primary consumer? What is the remaining energy called?

What can a change in a community of organisms cause? What can a change in a habitat cause? What can these ideas explain? Such a process of directional change is called?

Example- island of surtsey was created by? What is it home to now? Development of such a community from bare ground is known as? Whats the first step in this? What is this called? What produces enough soil? For what? like? What are these said to have done? In a similar way what happens next? Until what? what is this called? What are these in the UK? Does succession always start frombare ground? What can happen? What is this?

Why are sand dunes interesting? What deos the sea deposit? The sand nearest the sea is despotisted more recently than that further away which means the sand above the high water mark is at the start of what? whereas the sand at the top is what? Dune example- why are pioneer plants like sea rocket live above the high water mark? What does wind blown sand build up around? Forming? What happens as plants deca? What happens as the dune gets bigger? Why does sea crouch grass live? Why do more plants start to grow? Why are some platns special? What happens as moer snad and nutrients builds up? What can bacteria convert? With them avliable what happens? What does this do further?

What is lost from food chains? When? What is this broken down by? Which arE? Such as? Do they feed the same way as animals? how do they feed? What are they described as? What do they secrete?where? what do these enzymes digest? Into? What happens then? Having been stored what do the molecules then do? What if bacteria did not break down dead organisms? By digesting dead and waste materials what do microbes get? To do what? what about the trapped nutrients? What do microorganisms have an important role in?

What do living things  need nitrogen for? What is nitrogen cycled between? What is bacteria involved in? how much of the atmosphere is nitrgon? Whats wrong with it? What does it mean is impossible? Even though? What do they need instead? Such as? When can nitrogen fixation occur? How much do these process account for? What accounts for the rest? Where do many of these live? Which is where? Using it to make what? name a nitrogen fixing bacteria? Where does it live? Such as? Which are membrers of ? what relationship do they have? What do the bacteria provide the plant with? And receive? Such as? What do some proteins in the nodules absorb? Name one? What do they keep the conditions? Under these conditions what do the bacteria use? Such as? To reduce what? when does nitrificiation happen? What release ammonium ions? Involved in? found? Rather than getting their energy from sunlight chemoautotrophic bacteria obtain it by? Or? What does this require? Where do these reactions only happen? What can be absorbed from the soil by plants? To make? For? And? For? What do other bacteria convert nitrate ions back to? when the bacteria involved grow under anaerobic conditions like? They use something as a source of oxygen? For? And produce? And?

In some circumstances what may a species populatin do? However what may it do? Or do what erguarly? What does the size of a population depend on? What are the three phases in a population growth curve? How many at the lag phase? Still doing what? what is the rate of repdoction? What about growth in the population? At the log phase what are resources and conditions? What is the rate of reproduction? Population size? What does happens at the stationary phase? What cant the habitat do? What are the rate of reproduction? The population size? Why cant the habitat support a larger population? What are these called? What may they include? What may they also include? Such as? Or the intensity of? Both? What is the carrying capacity?

What is a predator? What can predation act as? On what? what can this in turn affect? What happens when predator population is large? What gets smaller? Leaving less what for who? With less food what cant happen? What reduces? With fewer predators what happens less? What increases? And with more prey what gets bigger? What does the cycle do? What does predator and prey graph look like? What is the limiting factor? However wwhatd differnet in the wild? What are there more of? What does this mean for wild graogs? When is it more difficult to see? Give example? What is still an intense debate? What do most agree predation is responsible for? What do they think about a lack of food is responsible for?

What if a resource is in short supply? What happens as the intentsity of competition increases? Why? what increases? Why? what are the two types of competition?

What does intraspecific competition happen between? Why? which individuals will survive? What will they do? And those that aren’t? what does this slow? What phase does the population enter? What are their in population size in the stationary phase? What does intraspecific compeiton keep the competition?what happens to competition if population size drops? What does the population do then? What id the population size increases? And the population size?

What does interspecific competition happen between? What can it affect? In 1934 what was grown? What happens when its together? With what for one? What reduced? What happened to them? What about the oher? And eventually became? What was concluded? What if two species have the same niche? What did the idea become known as? What does it explain? What do other suggestions say? Sometimes interspecific competition could result in? with both of them? What also has to eb taken into consideration? Whats the habitat? Whats it like in the wild? What may these variables do? Give examples?

In the past how much resources were used? What did this cause to the ecosystem? What did the population size do? In other words our excploitation of natural resources was? What is increasing quickly? How fast? Because of this what have humans had to do? What do these approaches do? Reduce? And even do what? name one situation where there is potential conflict? What is possible? What can this mean? And what about timber companies? Such management can happen on what scales?

What is coppicing? What is it like? What does it involve? Whats that? Wheres the cut made? Once cut what happens? What can happen to these? After cutting what happens? What continues? What is pollarding like? What does it involve? When is it useful? Why? whys this better then? How can they provide a continuous supply of wood? What is this called? Why does it work? What about the length of this rotation? What does it depend on? What does that depend on? And? In each section what are some tree left to do? Without? What are these called? What happens to them eventually? What is rotantial coppicing good for? If left unmanaged what would woodland go through? Blocking what? and reducing what? what does rotational coppcing what is provided? Letting more what in? increasing what?

What does large scale production of wood involve? What cant his destroy? On what scale? How often does it happen in the UK? What does clear felling the trees reduce? And leave it susceptible to? where may soil run? Doing what to them? This is because trees usually remove what? and stop it what? what does it maintain? In what cycles? How long is each section left? What dose this increase? What is wrong with this thoigh? Name a principle modern sustainable forestry work on? Even with the extraction of timber the forest must maintain? What about local people? What does selective cuttings involve? What does this mean for the habitat? Why is it hard? To enable what? what if each tree supplies more wood? To achiev this what do foresters do?only plant what? positoon them where? Why?

Are their natural habitats in the UK? What do most conservation programmes try to focus on? What does it include diversity between? But also maintenance of what diversity? Within what? and maintenance of what? what can threaten biodiversity? Over exploiation of? For what? and what? and what?what is also increasing them? Faster than what?what do we disturb? As a result of? Increased? widespread? What do we introduce into an ecosystem? How might this happen? What may they do#? Which may become? What do conservationists argue? What do they believe? Irrespective of?  Every living thing has what right? What do humans have? These arguments are laudable but? What are the arguments in facour of human activites that work aginst conservation? What are they driven by? How is it more effective to express the valure of conservation in economic terms?

Why are species harvested? When they are? What may others have? What do many sepcies provide? And were what originally? What did we do to them? What may be needed for the future to breed for disease resitance , drought tolerance or improved yield? Likewise what is needed? what are natural enviroments a valuable source of? What are many drugs used today from? What can natural predators of pests act as? What are the advantgaes? What value may species also have? Give example? Without them what would fail? What do othr communities maintain? Protect? Break down? There is evidence reduction in biodiversirty may what? what do ecotourism and recreation in the countryside have? What does this derive from? What does ecotourism depend on? What is there a sizeable industry in? what is also important? What does it usually involve?

Why were the galapgos islands perfect for Charles darwins stimulus on natural selection? What do they have a number of? Including? What are the animsl and plants recognised as? What has the population gorwn in response to? what has increased?

What has this dramatic increase in population size done? What are the authroites struggling to do? What is more produced? What has increased? What spill happened? What did it effect? What has also increased? What has it caused? What have been eradicated? Wh?

What eventually moved to the island? What di dthey do? What rate were they harvested? What were taken? Why? what did this effect? What have happened to them now? To try to what? what has taken a boom recently? Whats that done to populations? Depeletion of what as well? What has this effected? What else? How many species endangered? What is this exploitation of?

What cam with humans? What may they impact? What were brought delieberatly? What were accidenrly? What do they do to other species? Or out compete them for? What could they destroy? What could they bring? Such as? How could a species be effected by the  change in ecosystem from low shrub and grassland to closed forest canopy ? what has been one of the most damaging specieS? How? What do cats hunt? What are conservationists focus now? What strategies have been put in place? What concerns have to be taken into account? What balance has to befound? What do locals need? Why? what is essential? Give an example?