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ACSEE (Form 6) Ecology — practice questions

Explore 5 free Ecology questions in ACSEE (Form 6) Biology. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

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Ecology questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–5 of 5.

In a marine food chain, the producer level is occupied by:Read the answer and worked solution →Marine food chains support more trophic levels than land food chains, reaching about:Read the answer and worked solution →Food chains are limited to a few trophic levels mainly because:Read the answer and worked solution →Build the marine food chainRead the answer and worked solution →Order the marine food chainRead the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

In a marine food chain, the producer level is occupied by:

  1. drifting zooplankton
  2. drifting phytoplankton
  3. shoaling small fish
  4. hunting large sharks
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Correct answer: B. drifting phytoplankton

1. Producers make their own food, so in the sea they must be photosynthetic. 2. Phytoplankton are microscopic photosynthetic organisms drifting in the surface water. 3. They therefore occupy the first trophic level as the producers. 4. Zooplankton eat phytoplankton, so they are the primary consumers at the second level. 5. Placing phytoplankton at the consumer level and zooplankton as producers reverses the chain and was a recorded error. _Source: NECTA ACSEE 2023 Biology 133/2, Question 6: Ecology_

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Marine food chains support more trophic levels than land food chains, reaching about:

  1. three levels
  2. six levels
  3. four levels
  4. ten levels
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Correct answer: B. six levels

1. Each transfer between trophic levels loses most of the energy, largely as heat in respiration. 2. That loss is what caps the number of levels any chain can support. 3. Land chains typically manage three or four levels before too little energy remains. 4. The marine ecosystem supports about six trophic levels. 5. Stopping the marine chain at the tertiary consumer, and so at four levels, is where candidates most often lost a mark. _Source: NECTA ACSEE 2023 Biology 133/2, Question 6: Ecology_

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Food chains are limited to a few trophic levels mainly because:

  1. predators run out of hunting space
  2. decomposers remove the top consumers
  3. most energy is lost at each transfer
  4. producers stop growing in deep water
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Correct answer: C. most energy is lost at each transfer

1. Energy enters a chain when producers capture light. 2. At each transfer, only a small fraction of the energy in one level becomes body mass in the next. 3. The rest is lost as heat in respiration, in undigested material, and in excretion. 4. After a few transfers too little energy remains to support another population. 5. So it is energy loss, not space or decomposers, that sets the ceiling on chain length. _Source: NECTA ACSEE 2023 Biology 133/2, Question 6: Ecology_

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More Biology topics

CoordinationCytologyOrganic EvolutionGaseous Exchange and RespirationGeneticsPrinciples of ClassificationNutritionRegulation (Homeostasis)