🎯 Test Your Knowledge!

1. In a stable ecosystem, what primarily prevents unlimited population growth?

2. Biological magnification results from:

3. What term describes the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem, encompassing genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity?

4. After a volcanic eruption leaves behind barren rock, what ecological process sees pioneer species like lichens slowly colonizing the area, leading to soil formation?

5. A sudden drop in predator population can increase prey density, but long-term prey decline sometimes follows. What explains this?

6. When two species evolve in response to each other over long timescales, the process is known as:

7. Which ecological term describes the role and position a species has in its environment, including how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces?

8. A species introduced to an ecosystem that outcompetes native species and disrupts the food web is known as what?

9. What is the process by which nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into ammonia by bacteria, making it usable for plants?

10. Which of the following terms refers to the maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustainably support given the available resources?

11. Excessive nutrient runoff into a lake causes rapid algal growth, leading to oxygen depletion and harm to aquatic life. What is this process called?

12. Which of the following describes a symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is harmed?

13. Imagine a forest where deer graze on plants, and wolves prey on the deer. The wolves represent which trophic level in this food chain?

14. Which biome shows the highest resistance but lowest resilience to disturbances?

15. The “intermediate disturbance hypothesis” states that biodiversity is highest when:

16. What is a group of individuals of the same species living in the same geographic area at the same time called?

17. Which ecological interaction increases biodiversity the most over evolutionary time?

18. What is the general term for the process by which chemicals become more concentrated in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain?

19. In a grassland ecosystem, a sudden increase in the population of primary consumers (herbivores) leads to a decline in plant biomass. This illustrates the concept of what kind of population control?

20. What is the term for a species whose population size is used as an indicator of the overall health of an ecosystem?

21. The rate at which energy is actually stored in plant tissues after respiration is:

22. In a food web, if the population of a primary consumer drastically declines, what immediate effect would you expect on its predator population, assuming no other food sources?