Chapter 55 Bio AP

121123772	ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact
121123773	law of conservation of mass	a physical law stating that matter can change form but cannot be created or destroyed
121123774	primary producers	autotrophs, usually a photosynthetic organism; make up the trophic level of an ecosystem that ultimately supports all other levels
121123775	secondary consumers	carnivores that eat herbivores
121123776	tertiary consumers	carnivores that eat other carnivores
121123777	detrivores	decomposers; consumers that derive their energy and nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms
121123778	detritus	dead organic matter
121123779	primary production	the amount of light every converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) by autotrophs in an ecosystem during a given time period
121123780	gross primary production	the total primary production of an ecosystem
121123781	net primary production	the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration
121123782	limiting nutrient	an element that must be added for production to increase in a particular area
121123783	eutrophication	a process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae or cyanobacteria
121123784	actual evapotranspiration	the amount of water transpired by plants evaporated from a landscape over a given period of time (usually for a year)
121123785	secondary production	the amount of chemical energy in consumer's food that is converted to their own biomass during a given time period
121123786	production efficiency	the percentage of energy stored in food that is not used for respiration or eliminated as waste
121123787	trophic efficiency	the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next
121123788	turnover time	the time required to replace the standing crop of a population or group of populations; calculated as the ratio of standing crop to production
121123789	green world hypothesis	the conjecture that terrestrial herbivores consume relatively little plant biomass because they are held in check by a variety of factors, including predators, parasites, and diseases
121123790	biogeochemical cycles	any of the various chemical cycles, which involves both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems
121123791	biological magnification	a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each higher trophic level in a food chain (problem with toxins in environment; ex. DDT)
121123792	greenhouse effect	the warming of Earth due to the atmosphere accumulation of carbon dioxide and certain other gasses which absorb reflected infrared radiation and reflect some of it back toward Earth
121123793	trophic level efficiency	10% efficient between trophic levels (10% of energy is used in the next level)
121123794	water cycle	type of nutrient cycle that is essential to all organisms, its availability influences the rates of ecosystem processes (particularly primary production and decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems)
121123795	carbon cycle	type of nutrient cycle whose component forms the framework of the organic molecules essential to all organisms; photosynthetic organisms utilize this during photosynthesis; major reservoirs are fossil fuels, sediments, oceans, and plant and animal biomass (largest reservoir is sedimentary rock like limestone)
121123796	terrestrial nitrogen cycle	type of nutrient cycle whose component is part of amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids, and is also a limiting plant nutrient; makes up 80% of atmosphere
121123797	phosphorus cycle	type of nutrient cycle whose component is part of nucleic acids, phospholipids, and ATP; largest accumulation is in sedimentary rocks of marine origin
121123798	decomposition rate	controlled by temperature, moisture, and nutrient availability; much faster in tropical rain forests than in temperate climates
121123799	acid precipitation	caused by burning of wood and fossil fuels, which releases oxides of sulfur and nitrogen into the air, which consequently react with water in the atmosphere; when precipitation has a pH equal to or less than 5.2; causes calcium and other nutrients to be released from the soil and limits plant growth
121123800	ozone layer depletion	caused by accumulation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's); causes increased intensity of UV rays reaching Earth's surface