Practise Communities. 11 exam-style questions on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.
Cover the answers and test yourself. The app has these as flashcards that come back just before you'd forget them.
Write these levels of organisation in order, from the smallest to the largest. community · ecosystem · individual organism · population
individual organism → population → community → ecosystem
Sample questions
Written for this site in the style of AQA exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.
Question 1Easy6 marks
Ecologists use special terms to describe organisms and their surroundings.
(a) Which term describes all the populations of different species living in a habitat? Tick (✓) one box.[1]
Community
Ecosystem
Population
Species
(b) What is an ecosystem? Tick (✓) one box.[1]
All the organisms of one species living in a habitat
The interaction of a community of living organisms with the non-living parts of their environment
The place where an organism lives
The variety of all the different species on Earth
(c) Plants in a community compete with each other. Give two things that plants compete for.[2]
(d) Animals in a community also compete with each other. Give two things that animals compete for.[2]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: Community
(b)Answer: The interaction of a community of living organisms with the non-living parts of their environment
(c)
light
space
water
mineral ions
(d)
food
mates
territory
water / shelter
Question 2Medium8 marks
Bluebells are plants that grow on the floor of deciduous woodlands. Bluebells grow new leaves and flower in early spring, before the leaves on the trees have fully opened.
(a) Suggest how growing leaves and flowering in early spring helps bluebells to compete with the trees.[2]
(b) Trees and bluebells also compete for resources from the soil. Name two of these resources.[2]
(c) Bees feed on nectar from bluebell flowers and carry pollen between the flowers. Explain why bluebells and bees are interdependent.[2]
(d) Deer eat bluebell leaves. Suggest how an increase in the number of deer in the woodland could affect the bees.[2]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)
more light reaches the woodland floor before the tree leaves open
(so) bluebells can absorb more light / photosynthesise more
(b)
water
mineral ions
(c)
bees depend on bluebells for food / nectar
bluebells depend on bees for pollination / to reproduce
(d)
fewer bluebells / bluebell flowers (because leaves are eaten)
(so) less nectar / food for bees, so the number of bees may fall
Question 3Hard6 marks
A farmer plans to remove a long hawthorn hedge between two fields. Ecologists recorded some information about the hedge.
Bees feed on nectar from the hawthorn flowers and pollinate them.
Thrushes eat the hawthorn berries in autumn, and the seeds are spread in their droppings.
Small birds build their nests in the thorny branches.
Caterpillars feed on the hawthorn leaves, and blue tits feed the caterpillars to their chicks.
Brambles grow at the base of the hedge and compete with hawthorn seedlings.
Use the information to explain how removing the hawthorn hedge could affect the community of organisms living there. Include the ideas of interdependence and competition in your answer.[6]
Show the answer and mark scheme
species in a community are interdependent: they depend on other species for food, shelter, pollination and seed dispersal
bees would lose a source of nectar (food), so their numbers may fall, and other plants they pollinate may produce fewer seeds
thrushes would lose a food source (berries) in autumn, so fewer may survive the winter
small birds would lose nesting sites (shelter), so fewer could breed
caterpillars would lose their food, so blue tits would have less food for their chicks and fewer chicks would survive
predators of these birds and insects would also have less food
brambles would no longer compete with hawthorn seedlings, but other plants may then compete more strongly for light, water and space
the whole community is affected because species depend on each other, so it becomes less stable and biodiversity falls
Marked with levels of response: the full level descriptors are in the app.