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← Environmental Science syllabus

United StatesEnvironmental Science

Unit 1: The Living World: Ecosystems

11 dot points across 11 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What abiotic factors determine the distribution and productivity of aquatic biomes?

Why is only about ten percent of energy passed from one trophic level to the next?

How do food chains combine into food webs, and what happens when one species is removed?

How do interactions between organisms shape the structure of an ecosystem?

How much energy do producers capture, and what determines the productivity of an ecosystem?

How do temperature and precipitation determine where the major terrestrial biomes occur?

How does carbon move between living organisms, the atmosphere, oceans and rocks?

How does water move between the atmosphere, land and oceans, and how do humans alter these flows?

How is atmospheric nitrogen converted into forms organisms can use, and how do humans alter this cycle?

Why does the phosphorus cycle lack an atmospheric stage, and how does this make phosphorus a limiting nutrient?

How is energy organized into feeding levels, and why does each level hold less energy than the one below?