Investigating an Ecosystem

The ______ is the name given to the parts of the earth which contain living organisms.

The study of the biosphere is called ______

The earth is a biosphere which can be divided up into ____ ________.

An ecosystem is made up of ______ and ______ and the place where they live.

The place where an organism lives is known as its ______

Examples of ecosystems are:

In order to study an ecosystem it is often important to find out about the ______ and _____ of organisms found there.

because it is usually very difficult to count all the organisms present, ________ _______ are used so that the number and types of organisms present can be estimated

Sampling techniques include:

A ______ is a square-shaped frame of known area which is usually divided into smaller squares

A ______ can be used to estimate the number of plants in an ecosystem

For reliable results from a quadrat: (4points)

A quadrat can also be used to measure the ________ of different plants in an area. This allows us to compare the amounts of different plants present.

A ______ ____ is a method of sampling the animals present on the floor of a forest or wood.

For best results using a pitfall trap:

Once organisms have been collected they can be identified by using ________ ___

There are two types of key:

There are many factors in an ecosystem that can affect the _________ of organisms

Aboitic factors include:

Light intensity and moisture content can be measured easily using a __________. This meter contains a light sensor and a moisture probe & two scales:
light intensity uses scale
moisture meter uses scale

Ways to minimise errors when using the moisture probe:
1)moisture probe may still contain moisture from previous reading.
2)moisture probe may hit a stone.

Ways to minimise errors when using the light sensor:
1)shadows between the light source and light meter
2)light intensity is different at different times of the day