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Chapter 18 Practice Paper: Ecosystems and material cycles — question paper

QuizQuipPractice Series
QQ/GCSE-BIO/CH18

GCSE (9–1) · GCSE Biology (Foundation and Higher)

Chapter 18 Practice Paper

Ecosystems and material cycles

Duration: 40 minutes
Total: 30 marks
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READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

  • Answer all questions.
  • Section A contains ten multiple-choice questions. Choose one answer, A, B, C or D, for each.
  • Section B contains structured questions. Write your answers in the spaces provided.
  • You may use a calculator.
  • The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
  • The total mark for this paper is 30.

Original practice material written for the MOE GCSE Biology syllabus. It is not an official MOE or school examination paper. Chapter 18: communities and abiotic/biotic factors, food chains and predator–prey cycles, quadrat population estimates, adaptations and extremophiles, (Biology only) decay and biogas, the water and carbon cycles, biodiversity and food security, (Higher, Biology only) biomass transfer efficiency.

For Examiner’s Use
Section A/ 10
Section B/ 20
Total/ 30

Section A: Multiple-choice questions[10 marks]

Choose one answer for each question. Each question is worth 1 mark.

  1. 1

    All the organisms living in a habitat form a

    1. Acommunity
    2. Bgenome
    3. Cclimax
    4. Dcolony
    ( )
  2. 2

    Temperature is an example of a

    1. Abiotic factor
    2. Babiotic factor
    3. Cproducer
    4. Dpredator
    ( )
  3. 3

    In a food chain, the first organism is always a

    1. Apredator
    2. Bproducer
    3. Cparasite
    4. Dpathogen
    ( )
  4. 4

    In a predator–prey graph, the predator peak

    1. Aprecedes the prey peak
    2. Bnever occurs
    3. Cequals the prey peak exactly
    4. Dlags behind the prey peak
    ( )
  5. 5

    Quadrat counts: 6, 8, 4, 6, 6. The mean is

    1. A4
    2. B5
    3. C6
    4. D30
    ( )
  6. 6

    A 600 m² field sampled with 1 m² quadrats and a mean of 4 daisies holds about

    1. A2 400 daisies
    2. B150 daisies
    3. C600 daisies
    4. D6 000 daisies
    ( )
  7. 7

    (Biology only) Decomposers return nutrients by

    1. Aphotosynthesising
    2. Bhunting prey
    3. Cbreaking down dead material and waste
    4. Devaporating water
    ( )
  8. 8

    Deforestation reduces biodiversity because it

    1. Adestroys habitats
    2. Bcreates new habitats
    3. Cincreases rainfall
    4. Dplants more trees
    ( )
  9. 9

    (Higher, Biology only) Efficiency of a biomass transfer =

    1. Aintake ÷ transferred × 100
    2. Btransferred + intake
    3. Ctransferred − intake
    4. Dtransferred ÷ intake × 100
    ( )
  10. 10

    (Higher, Biology only) Why does eating plant material directly support more people than feeding the plants to livestock first?

    1. Aplants need no soil
    2. Blivestock produce no biomass
    3. Cit skips one biomass transfer, so fewer losses
    4. Dpeople digest grass better than cattle
    ( )

Section B: Structured questions[20 marks]

Answer all questions in the spaces provided.

  1. 11

    This question is about communities.

    1. (a)

      Define the term ecosystem.

      [2]
    2. (b)

      State two abiotic and one biotic factor affecting a pond community.

      [3]
  2. 12

    A garden of 500 m² is sampled with 0.5 m² quadrats. The ten quadrat counts of worms are 8, 6, 9, 7, 8, 6, 9, 7, 8 and 6.

    1. (a)

      Work out the average number of worms found in a single quadrat.

      [2]
    2. (b)

      Estimate the worm population of the garden.

      [3]
    3. (c)

      State one source of error in this estimate.

      [1]
  3. 13

    (Biology only) This question is about decay.

    1. (a)

      State three conditions that speed up decay.

      [3]
    2. (b)

      Explain why salting preserves food.

      [1]
  4. 14

    (Higher, Biology only) This question is about biomass transfer.

    1. (a)

      Explain why biomass transfer between trophic levels is inefficient.

      [3]
    2. (b)

      A rabbit eats 300 kJ of grass and builds 45 kJ of new biomass. Calculate the transfer efficiency.

      [2]

— End of paper —