AQA GCSE Biology, topic 7
Ecology
Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment. It covers communities, food chains, the cycling of materials such as carbon and water, and how human activity affects biodiversity. Triple students also study decomposition, environmental change (Higher), trophic levels, biomass transfer and food production.
Examined in Paper 2 (1 hour 45 minutes, 100 marks).
Revision notes
Worksheet
FlashcardsSubtopics
Work through them in order. Each one has notes, exam questions and flashcards, and a PDF of each.
- 1Adaptations, interdependence and competition Spec 4.7.1Levels of organisation, competition, interdependence, abiotic and biotic factors, and how organisms are adapted to their environment.NotesQuestions 5Flashcards 14
- 2Organisation of an ecosystem Spec 4.7.2Food chains, sampling with quadrats and transects, predator-prey cycles, the carbon and water cycles, decay and the effect of environmental change.NotesQuestions 8Flashcards 26
- 3Biodiversity and the effect of human interaction on ecosystems Spec 4.7.3What biodiversity is, and how waste, land use, deforestation and global warming reduce it, and how people try to maintain it.NotesQuestions 6Flashcards 15
- 4Trophic levels in an ecosystem Triple onlySpec 4.7.4Trophic levels, pyramids of biomass, and how biomass is lost between levels of a food chain, including efficiency calculations.NotesQuestions 4Flashcards 12
- 5Food production Triple onlySpec 4.7.5Food security, intensive farming, sustainable fishing and the role of biotechnology, including mycoprotein, GM bacteria and GM crops.NotesQuestions 4Flashcards 11
Whole topic
When you have done the subtopics: test yourself on everything, or print the lot.