Chapter 4: Ecology

POPULATIONS AND SPECIES

● A species is a group of organisms with similar characteristics, which can potentially

interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
● A population is a group of organisms of the same species, who live in the same area at
the same time.

MODES OF HETEROTROPHIC NUTRITION

● Saprotrophs obtain organic nutrients from dead organisms by external digestion. They
secrete digestive enzymes into material such as dead leaves or wood, dead animals and
feces.
● Consumers feed on living organisms by ingestion. This means that they take other
organisms into their digestive system or digestion and absorption.

AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS

● Autotrophs absorb carbon dioxide, water and inorganic nutrients such as nitrates from
the abiotic (non-living) environment and use them to synthesize all the carbon
compounds that they need.
● Heterotrophs cannot make all the carbon compounds that they need and instead obtain
them from other organisms.

COMMUNITIES

● A community is a group of populations of different species living together and interacting

with each other in an area.

ECOSYSTEMS

● A community forms an ecosystem by its interactions with the abiotic environment.

MESOCOSMS

● A mesocosm is a small experimental area set up in an ecological research programme.

● Plants, algae and some bacteria absorb light energy and convert it by photosynthesis
into chemical energy in carbon compounds. Because these organisms make their own
food they are called producers.
Answer: A

Explanation: A community contains all living species in the area, not them interacting with the
ecosystem.

Answer: C
Explanation: A saprotroph is an organism that feeds on decaying organisms. A fungus is a
decomposer.
Answer: C

Explanation: A heterotroph is an organism that cannot provide its own food, instead they take
the nutrients from other organisms.
Answer: C

Explanation: When fuel is combustion because of the fuel is being put in the air and in the water
while green plants release oxygen into the air that allows respiration.
Answer: D

Explanation: Peat is created by countless generations of decomposing organic material. The

vegetation must fall and be buried in an area with little oxygen for it to be integrated into the soil
layers without fully decomposing in order to generate peat.