Biology · Ecology. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.
Every food chain starts with a producer, a green plant or alga that makes glucose by photosynthesis. Producers are eaten by primary consumers, which are eaten by secondary consumers, then tertiary consumers. In a stable community the numbers of predators and prey rise and fall in cycles.
Ecologists use quadrats placed at random to estimate how many organisms live in an area, and quadrats along a transect line to see how the distribution changes across a habitat.
Materials are recycled. Carbon moves between the air and living things by photosynthesis, respiration, feeding, decay and combustion. Water moves by evaporation, transpiration, condensation and precipitation.
Placing quadrats where there are plenty of organisms gives a biased result. Use random coordinates, use many quadrats and calculate a mean.
Answer: About 24 000 clover plants.
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