WorksheetsUnit 1 Ecology 2025 Review
Total questions: 40
Worksheet time: 20mins
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is one linear sequence of feeding events, while a food web combines multiple food chains together.
A food chain shows energy moving from predators to prey, while a food web shows energy moving from prey to predators.
A food chain includes only producers, while a food web includes only consumers.
A food chain includes decomposers only, while a food web excludes them.
Why are the arrows in a food web always drawn from the prey toward the predators?
They show the movement of energy from the prey to the predators.
They indicate the speed at which animals move.
They point to producers because producers start all cycles.
They represent migration routes of animals.
The four plants and algae at the bottom of the food web are autotrophs. What is their source of energy?
Sunlight captured during photosynthesis to make chemical energy (glucose).
Heat released by predators during hunting.
Nutrients absorbed directly from animals.
Electricity from thunderstorms.
If the tree populations began to decline due to disease, predict how this might impact the primary and secondary consumers in the food web.
Primary consumers would decrease due to reduced food, leading to declines in secondary consumers.
Primary consumers would increase while secondary consumers remain unchanged.
Secondary consumers would increase because there is less competition for trees.
There would be no impact on consumers.
Use the energy pyramid to determine the calories transferred to the grasshopper trophic level.
10
100
1,000
10,000
Which words correctly apply to the grass at the base of the energy pyramid? Select all that apply.
producer
consumer
predator
prey
autotroph
Which words correctly apply to the top predator bird at the apex of the energy pyramid? Select all that apply.
producer
consumer
predator
prey
heterotroph
Classify the description as invasive or keystone: Kudzu was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition; promoted as a forage crop, an ornamental plant, and a check on erosion. It can grow up to a foot a day, allowing it to easily outcompete and kill other plants including trees and shrubs.
Invasive species
Keystone species
Coyotes and foxes are predators that eat the same species in the same area. Fights for land among these two species occur frequently. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
Marine creatures sometimes outgrow their shells, leaving them on the ocean floor. Hermit crabs inhabit these empty shells, which provide protection and shelter, while the previous inhabitant is no longer using the shell. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
Tapeworms are segmented flatworms that attach themselves to the insides of the intestines of animals such as cows, pigs, and humans. They get food by eating the animal's partly digested food, depriving the host of nutrients. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
A wolf is a natural environmental carnivore. The wolf can hunt as a pack or as an individual. A pack of wolves can bring down and eat a whole moose. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
One particular type of fungus attaches itself to ants' bodies as they forage for food. These ants unknowingly transport the fungus to fungus gardens located in the ant colony that serve as food for the ants. The fungus then takes over and destroys the garden. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
Male horned rams will fight with each other for the right to mate with females. The rams will run and slam their horns together until one gives up. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
Acacia ants inhabit the bullhorn acacia (a type of tree). The ants obtain food and shelter, and the acacia depends on the ants for protection from browsing animals, which the ants drive away. Neither member can survive successfully without the other. Which relationship is being described?
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Predation
Competition
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Trophic Level, Food Web, Food Chain, Arrow.
Trophic Level
Food Web
Food Chain
Arrow
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Parasitism, Commensalism, Mutualism, Symbiosis.
Parasitism
Commensalism
Mutualism
Symbiosis
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Organism, Ecosystem, Population, Community.
Organism
Ecosystem
Population
Community
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Omnivore, Consumers, Carnivore, Herbivore.
Omnivore
Consumers
Carnivore
Herbivore
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Producers, Plants, Algae, Bacteria.
Producers
Plants
Algae
Bacteria
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Ecosystem, Biotic Factor, Biosphere, Abiotic Factor.
Ecosystem
Biotic Factor
Biosphere
Abiotic Factor
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Grasslands, Biome, Rainforest, Boreal Forest.
Grasslands
Biome
Rainforest
Boreal Forest
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Evaporation, Precipitation, Water Cycle, Transpiration.
Evaporation
Precipitation
Water Cycle
Transpiration
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Low Temperature, Little Rainfall, Tundra, Permafrost.
Low Temperature
Little Rainfall
Tundra
Permafrost
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Community Ecology, Invasive Species, Symbiosis, Keystone Species.
Community Ecology
Invasive Species
Symbiosis
Keystone Species
Ecology Vocab: Circle the vocabulary term that includes all of the rest. Choose the term that encompasses the others: Abiotic Factors, Biomass, Biodiversity, Ecosystem.
Abiotic Factors
Biomass
Biodiversity
Ecosystem
You are a botanist and are finding the population density of a species of plant. Which sampling method would you use?
Quadrat
Mark and recapture
Count every plant
A research team is conducting a quadrat sampling experiment for starfish. Calculate the total surface area of the entire sampling plot (all three quadrats).
6 m^2
8 m^2
10 m^2
12 m^2
A research team is conducting a quadrat sampling experiment for starfish. Calculate the population density of the starfish across all three quadrats.
0.25 starfish per m^2
0.5 starfish per m^2
1 starfish per m^2
2 starfish per m^2
Using the population density of the starfish from all three quadrats, calculate the predicted population of starfish in an area that covers 160 m^2.
40 starfish
60 starfish
80 starfish
160 starfish
Which of the following organisms in Lake Michigan could be sampled using the mark‑recapture method?
Zebra mussels
Smallmouth bass
Phytoplankton
Algae
Why is the mark‑recapture method appropriate for sampling smallmouth bass in Lake Michigan?
They are stationary and easy to count.
They reproduce rapidly and are microscopic.
They move throughout the lake and can be recaptured.
They live in coral reefs and are hard to mark.
Why might a researcher choose the quadrat method instead of mark‑recapture to sample coral populations (or similar stationary organisms)?
Coral moves too quickly to be marked.
Coral is too small to be seen without a microscope.
Coral is stationary and best studied in fixed areas.
Coral lives in deep water and cannot be reached.
Which of the following is an example of an interspecific interaction in Lake Michigan?
Two male smallmouth bass competing for a mate
A round goby preying on native darter fish eggs
A school of alewives swimming together for protection
Zebra mussels competing with other zebra mussels for space
Which of the following best illustrates an intraspecific interaction in Lake Michigan?
Zebra mussels filtering plankton from the water
Smallmouth bass feeding on crayfish
Multiple round gobies competing for nesting sites
Algae growing on rocks alongside aquatic plants
Which of the following is a producer?
These consumers are herbivores.
secondary consumers
primary consumers
tertiary consumers
biomass
Animal that gets its energy and nutrition from eating plants.
Parasite
Herbivore
Carnivore
Ominvore
Animal that gets its energy and nutrition from eating meat.
Detritivore
Ominvore
Carnivore
Herbivore
Organisms that produce their own food mostly through photosynthesis (producers). Examples are plants and algae.
Ominvore
Detritivore
Heterotroph
Autotroph
