Changing Ecosystem

Changing Ecosystems and Adaptations

Multiple Choice

Review:

What is a community of interacting organisms and their environment called?

• ecosystem
• life cycle
• ecosphere
• habitat

Multiple Choice

Review:

What washes away soil and plants?

• a flood

• a drought

• a wildfire

• a tornado

Multiple Choice

A wildfire can eliminate food sources for animals.

• True

• False

Multiple Select

If there were a wildfire and food sources were destroyed, animals would need...

• adapt to other sources of food

• nothing, they cannot survive a wildfire

• find a new environment to continue living

• cleanup the fire

Multiple Choice

How is an invasive species of plant harmful to an environment?

• it grows slowly

• it will not harm the environment

• it blocks sunlight and takes nutrients that native plants need

• it adapts and becomes one with the native plants

Multiple Choice

How does a bird "change its environment" to meet its NEEDS?

• builds a nest
• flies around
• catches bugs
• looks for something to eat

Multiple Choice

After this prairie was flooded, all the animals left and the grasses died. Which organism will most likely return first?

• jackrabbit

• hawk

• coyote

• grasses

Multiple Choice

The removal of which organism would cause all other populations to decrease?

• small ocean plants

• small ocean animals

• tuna

• shark

Multiple Choice

What might happen to the rest of the food chain if there was a decrease in the snake population?

• The grasshopper population will increase.

• The mouse population will decrease.

• The hawk population will decrease.

• The grass population will decrease.

Ecological succession is changes in the types of species growing in an ecosystem over time

• Ecosystems typically start with just a few smaller species

• If allowed to develop, larger and more diverse species move in

Multiple Choice

The change of an ecosystem over time until a stable stage is reached is called -

• competition

• carry capacity

• succession

• parasitism

Succession begins with a pioneer species and ends with a climax community

• Pioneer species are the FIRST living things to start growing and are small and grow quickly

• A climax community is reached when the largest organisms are present and the ecosystem is stable (no longer changing)

Multiple Choice

The first living thing to grow successfully in a newly formed rock formation are called -

• climax species

• pioneer species

• parasites

• heterotrophs

Multiple Choice

Stable, final stage of succession

• adaptation

• pioneer species

• niche

• climax community

Primary succession occurs when an ecosystem starts from NOTHING

• There is NO SOIL present

• May occur after a volcano or moving glacier creates new rock

• The pioneer species are usually bacteria, moss, and lichen, which break down rock to form soil

Multiple Choice

Primary succession could potentially begin in which of the following environments?

• A field covered with a flow of lava for an extended period of time

• A large plain used for cattle grazing during the past 20 years

• A mountainside that has been clear-cut for logging

• A forest that has been destroyed by two wildfires

Secondary succession occurs when soil is already present

• Remember - Secondary HAS Soil!

• May occur after a flood, fire, or other disaster kills larger species but does not destroy the soil

• The pioneer species is often grass, but may still include moss, lichen

Multiple Choice

What is the difference between primary and secondary succession?

• Primary succession already has soil.

• Primary has soil and secondary does not

• soil is present in both

• primary has no soil and secondary has soil

Multiple Choice

Each drawing represents different stages in community succession within the state of Virginia. Which of the following drawings represents the climax community in this succession pattern?