Terms : Hide Images
| 7353773836 | Ecosystem | The sum of all the organisms living in a given area and the abiotic factors with which they interact (varying sizes of areas) | 0 | |
| 7353773837 | Energy flow in ecosystems | Enters as sunlight, goes to autotrophs, dispersed among heterotrophs | 1 | |
| 7353773838 | Chemical cycling in ecosystems | Chemical elements cycled among biotic and abiotic parts of the ecosystem (Photosynthesis, Chemosynthesis) | 2 | |
| 7353773839 | How to study ecosystem processes | Alter environmental factors such as temperature or nutrients | 3 | |
| 7353773840 | What do cells do to energy and matter | Transform according to the law of thermodynamics | 4 | |
| 7353773841 | First law of thermodynamics | Energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transferred or transformed | 5 | |
| 7353773842 | Second law of thermodynamics | Every exchange of energy increases the entropy of the universe (Energy conversions are often inefficient) | 6 | |
| 7353773843 | Law of Conservation of Mass | Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed | 7 | |
| 7353773844 | Primary producer | Trophic level that supports all others (Autotroph) | 8 | |
| 7353773845 | Primary consumer | Herbivore that eats the primary producers (Heterotroph) | 9 | |
| 7353773846 | Secondary consumer | Carnivores that eat herbivores | 10 | |
| 7353773847 | Tertiary consumer | Carnivores that eat other carnivores | 11 | |
| 7353773848 | Detrivores/Decomposers | Get nutrients from nonliving organic material (dead organisms, fallen leaves) | 12 | |
| 7353773849 | Detritus | Nonliving organic material | 13 | |
| 7353773850 | Two important detrivore groups | Prokaryotes and Fungi | 14 | |
| 7353773851 | How do detrivores digest organic material? | Secrete enzymes and absorb | 15 | |
| 7353773852 | Primary production of an ecosystem | The amount o flight energy converted to chemical energy by autotrophs in the form of organic compounds | 16 | |
| 7353773853 | What limits the possible photosynthetic output of ecosystems | The amount of solar radiation that ultimately reaches Earth's surface | 17 | |
| 7353773854 | Gross Primary Production (GPP) | Total primary production in an ecosystem-- the amount of energy from light converted the chemical energy or organic molecules per unit time | 18 | |
| 7353773855 | Net Primary Production (NPP) | Gross primary production minus the energy used by the primary producers for their "autotrophic respiration" (Usually half of GPP on average) (Expressed as energy per unit area per unit time) |  | 19 |
| 7353773856 | Standing crop | The total biomass of photosynthetic autotrophs present | 20 | |
| 7353773857 | Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) | Measure of the total biomass accumulation during a given period of time NEP+ GPP-R | 21 | |
| 7353773858 | How to measure NEP? | Measure the net flow of CO2 or O2 entering or leaving the ecosystem | 22 | |
| 7353773859 | What controls primary production in aquatic ecosystems? | Light and nutrients | 23 | |
| 7353773860 | Limiting nutrient | The element that must be added for production to increase (Usually Nitrogen or Phosphorous--sometimes iron) | 24 | |
| 7353773861 | Eutrophication | In aquatic ecosystems, Detrivores decompose dead primary producers and deplete the water of much or all of its oxygen and cause the loss of many fish species | 25 | |
| 7353773862 | What controls primary production in terrestrial ecosystems? | Temperature and Moisture | 26 | |
| 7353773863 | Evapotranspiration | The total amount of water transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape-- increases with temperature | 27 | |
| 7353773864 | What limits primary production in terrestrial ecosystems? | Soil nutrients (Nitrogen and Phosphorous) Soil pH | 28 | |
| 7353773865 | What adaptations have plants made to help better take in nutrients | Nitrogen-fixing bacteria form a symbiosis with plant roots Mychorrizhal phosphorous-supplying association between fungi and plants Release enzymes to attract nutrients | 29 | |
| 7353773866 | Secondary Production | The amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given period | 30 | |
| 7353773867 | Energy production efficiency | Percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is not used for respiration |  | 31 |
| 7353773868 | Net secondary production | The energy stored in biomass represented by growth and reproduction | 32 | |
| 7353773869 | Assimilation of primary production | Consists of total energy taken in used for growth, reproduction, and respiration (not including losses in feces) | 33 | |
| 7353773870 | Trophic efficiency | Percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next (generally only about 10% and range from 5-20% (90% of the energy in one trophic level is typically not transferred to the next) | 34 | |
| 7353773871 | Pyramid of Net production | Demonstrates the loss of energy with each transfer in a food chain, trophic levels are arranged in tiers where the width of each trophic level is proportional to the net production in Joules | 35 | |
| 7353773872 | Biomass pyramid | Represents ecological consequences of low trophic efficiencies, each tier represents the standing crop (total dry mass of all oragnisms) in one trophic level | 36 | |
| 7353773873 | Turnover time | Measures a species standing crop in the duration of time it grows, reproduces, and dies Standing crop/Production | 37 | |
| 7353773874 | Carbon cycle | CO2 -> Photosythesis -> Cellular respiration |  | 38 |
| 7353773875 | Nitrogen cycle | N2 -> N fixation -> Organisms -> Denitrification |  | 39 |
| 7353773876 | Biogeochemical cycles | Cycles that involve both biotic and abiotic components (Nutrient cycles) | 40 | |
| 7353773877 | What are the two general categories of biogeochemical cycles | Global and Local | 41 | |
| 7353773878 | The water cycle (lol) | Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation |  | 42 |
| 7353773879 | Phosphorous cycle | Weathering of rocks adds phosphorous to soil, some leaches into groundwater and surface water and may eventually reach the sea, producers take in phosphates, consumers eat producers, phosphate is returned to soil or water (Phosphorous never goes into the atmosphere) |  | 43 |
| 7353773880 | How have ecologists worked out the details of chemical cycling? | Isotope usage -- follow nonradioactive naturally occurring isotopes --adding tiny amounts of traceable radioactive isotopes (C14) | 44 | |
| 7353773881 | What factors control the rate of decomposition | The same factors that limit primary production: temperature, moisture, nutrient availability | 45 | |
| 7353773882 | Hubbard Brook Deforestation Study | Showed that the amount of nutrients leaving an intact forest ecosystem is controlled mainly by the plants | 46 | |
| 7353773883 | Ecosystem damages | Farming, Mining, Salts from irrigation, Oil spills | 47 | |
| 7353773884 | What do restoration ecologists work to do? | Identify and manipulate the processes that most limit recovery of ecosystems from disturbances | 48 | |
| 7353773885 | Bioremediation | Using organisms- usually prokaryotes, fungi, or plants, to detoxify polluted ecosystems | 49 | |
| 7353773886 | Biological Augmentation | Uses organisms to add essential materials to a degraded ecosystem | 50 | |
| 7353773887 | How much of visible light is converted to chemical energy by photosynthetic organisms? | Only 1% | 51 | |
| 7353773888 | Is net primary productivity higher in the summer or fall? | Fall because there is a need for less respiration because less photosynthesis is occurring | 52 |
