CHAPTER 3: BASIC ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLE

Review Questions
1. Answer briefly the following questions:
1. For which of the following nutrients is rock a major reservoir (a) oxygen (b) water (c) carbon
(d) phosphorus

2. How is nitrogen released back to the atmosphere once it has been incorporated into the body
of an organism?

3. During the nitrogen cycle, the process in which certain soil bacteria convert nitrogen from
usable form (NOX) back to N2 is called?

4. Which energy resource utilizes hot, dry rocks? Explain.

5. Biomass energy can be obtained from all of the following except (a) rocks (b) wood (c)
garbage (d) ethanol
6. Inexhaustible energy resources are used less often than nonrenewable resources for all of the
following reasons except (a) they are less reliable (b) they are too expensive (c) they are not
widely available (d) they cause too much pollution
7. An organism such as bacteria and fungi that breaks down dead organisms and their waste is
called?
8. Wht are the principles gases in the atmosphere that trap heat?
9. In a natural community, all the living things that directly or indirectly affect the environment
are known as (a) pinoeer organisms (b) secondary organisms (c) climatic limitations (d)
biotic factors
10. A certain plant requires moisture, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and minerals in order to survive.
This statement shows that a living organisms depends on what factors? Explain.

II. Discuss the following:

1. If there is a major human0induced climate change, is it more likely to come from a change
in albedo or from a change in ocean circulation? Please explain.
2. Describe some examples of how climate change could affect organism.
3. Name two organisms that occupy the first trophic level; two that occupy the second; two that
occupy the third.
4. How gloabal warming produced?
5. Differentiate renewable form non-renewable sources
6. Effect of fossil fuels in the environment.
7. Explain how wind, waves, oceasn currents, plant and hydroelectric energy resources are all
forms of solar energy?
8. Organisms have evolved to obtain energy from food or from the process of photosythesis.
Would it have been possible for life forms to evolve which obtain their energy by some other
processes, such as rolling down hills? Defend your answer.
III. Critical Thinking:
1. Certain essentials of life are abundant in some ecosystems but rare in others. Give examples
of situations in which each of the following is abundant and in which each is rare: (a) water
(b) oxygen (c) light (d)space and (e) nitrogen.
2. Why do not farmers need to buy carbon at the fertilizer store? Why do they need to buy
nitrogen?
3. Describe three pathways whereby atmospheric nitrogen is converted to fixed form that are
usable by planes, and three pathways whereby fixed nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere.
4. Do you think that a human being living in a cold climate survive as well on a severely limited
diet as a person living in a moderate climate could?
5. Discuss problems inherent in predicting the future availability of fossil fuel reserves. What is

the value of the predictions?