Revision for Ecology

1. Revision for Ecology Formative test on Friday…

2. Revision – factors affecting a population • There are four factors which affect a population – what are they? • Briefly describe each factor

3. What controls a population • What are some abiotic controls on a population? (explain density-dependence/independence) • What are some biotic controls on a population? (explain intra/interspecific relationships)

4. Regulating factors in population control • Explain competition in 3 lines • What are some examples of intraspecific competition? (Think food, space etc. There are lots and I want examples!) • Explain disease and parasitism in populations

5. Regulating factors in population control • Explain Gause’s principle – what is it (best to actually learn the sentence) Give an example. • What’s the cycle of predation/prey? EG? • Emigration/Immigration? Describe. • How can humans interfere with populations? Briefly explain.

6. Measuring populations • Briefly explain how we can measure populations. Think samples, quadrats, transects, clumped/random/uniform distribution etc.

7. Communities! • What is a community? Eg? • Explain the 3 common characteristics to all communities. • Name 3 types of communities from the world • There are producers and consumers in a community – name the two types of producers and explain what they do/how they survive, and name the 3 types of consumers and explain what they do/how they survive

8. Intra/Inter-specific relationships • Explain how behaviours can be intraspecific • What is mutualism? Eg? • What is commensalism? Eg? • What is exploitation? Eg?

9. Patterns in communities • Explain primary succession (in previous exams, succession comes up 80% of the time so you should take time to learn this and summarise a good explanation) • Explain secondary succession Try use examples for both – always a good look in exams

10. Patterns in communities • Explain stratification? Eg? • Explain zonation? Eg? • What are some of the factors leading to zonation?

11. Energy flow in an ecosystem • Write down the chemical equation for photosynthesis • Why is a food chain only 4-5 links? What happens to the energy? (Use words like biomass, energy loss, transfer etc) • What is a trophic level? • What are autotrophs and heterotrophs? • How can humans affect a food chain/web? What are some NZ examples of this?

12. Chemical recycling • Briefly(!) explain the water cycle, the carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle. • As long as you have the general gist of it, you will be fine – even Excellence does not need masses of information. Just a firm understanding is good.

13. Management practices • You should have your own notes from this section. If not, use page 75 onwards from the Meg Bayley textbook and fill out your own notes.

14. Population graphs • You have all those notes from the population graphs – make sure you know things like ‘carrying capacity’, reproductive potential, when populations can/cannot immigrate/emigrate etc. • Good luck! Study for your formative, I know it’s not credits but it will seriously help you at the end of the year! I looked through heaps of exam papers and there is nothing out of the blue.