Question 1

What are food chains?

Accepted Answer

A series of organisms, each dependent on the next as a source of food

(grass -> grasshopper -> mouse -> snake -> hawk)

Question 2

What are food webs?

Accepted Answer

A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains

Question 3

What are negative feedback loops?

Accepted Answer

A feedback loop where a system responds to a change by trying to return to its original state or by slowing the rate at which the change is occurring

(if there's a drought, a lake will shrink due to evaporation, leading to less surface area, which causes less evaporation)

Question 4

What are positive feedback loops?

Accepted Answer

A feedback loop where some change continues to increase in intensity

(increased global temperatures lead to ice caps melting, leading to more sunlight absorption (darker), causing more melting)

Question 5

What is a trophic cascade?

Accepted Answer

The changes that occur to an entire ecosystem when top predators are impacted

(if wolves die off, deer will flourish and overeat plants, severely damaging the ecosystem)

Question 6

What is ecosystem resistance?

Accepted Answer

How well an ecosystem can withstand a disturbance

Question 7

What is ecosystem resilience?

Accepted Answer

How well an ecosystem can recover after a disturbance

Question 8

What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

The idea that species biodiversity is highest when ecological disturbance is neither too frequent nor too rare

1.11 Food Chains and Webs, AP Environmental Science Flashcards