AP Biology Ch 54: Ecosystems Vocabulary Flashcards

AP Biology Chapter 54: Ecosystems Vocabulary

94466679	Ecosystem	a community and its physical environment, including biotic and abiotic components. All organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; a community and it's physical environment. P1198	0
94466680	Heterotrophs	an organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their byproduct. P 1199	1
94466681	Primary producers	an autotroph, which collectively make up the trophic level of an ecosystem that ultimately supports all other levels in the ecosystem; usually a photosynthetic organism which use light energy to make sugars and other organic compounds. P1199	2
94466682	Primary consumers	consumers that eat producers. Ex: herbavors.	3
94466683	Secondary consumers	a member of the trophic level of an ecosystem consisting of carnivores that eat herbivores. p1199	4
94466684	Tertiary consumers	a member of the trophic level of an ecosystem consisting of carnivores that eat other carnivores. p1199	5
94466685	Detritivores / Decomposers	A consumer that derives it's energy from nonliving organic material.	6
94466686	Detritus	dead organic material. p1199	7
94466687	Primary production	amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) during a given time period in an ecosystem; the photosynthetic output of an ecosystem's autotrophs. p1200	8
94466688	Gross primary production (GPP)	the total primary production of an ecosystem. The amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy by photosynthesis per unit time. Not all is stored as organic material because plants use some to fuel their own chemical respiration. p1200	9
94466689	Net Primary Production (NPP)	it represents the storage of chemical energy that is available to consumers in the ecosystem. It is equal to the gross primary production (GPP) of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration (R); [NPP=GPP-R]. p1200	10
94466690	Biomass	dry weight of organic matter comprising a small group of organisms in a particular habitat. p1201	11
94466691	Standing crop	the total biomass of photosynthetic autotrophs present at a given time. p1201	12
94466692	Limiting nutrient	the nutrient that must be added for production to increase; often is nitrogen or phosphorus. p1203	13
94466693	Eutrophication	the shift in composition of phytoplankton communities in lakes from dominations by green algae and diatoms to blooms of cyanobacteria. p1204	14
94466694	Secondary production	amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given time period. p1205	15
94466695	Production efficiency	fraction of food energy that is not used for respiration. p1206	16
94466696	Trophic efficiency	the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next.p1206	17
94466697	Pyramid of production	is a pyramid in which the trophic levels are staked in blocks, with primary producers forming the foundation of the pyramid. It shows the multiplicative loss of energy caused by trophic efficiency. p1206	18
94466698	Biomass pyramid	Each tier represents the standing crop in a trophic level. p1206	19
94466699	Turnover time	standing crop biomass compared to production; thus turnover time equals the standing crop biomass (mg/m2) divided by production (mg/m2/day). P1207	20
94466700	Pyramid of numbers	the size of each block is proportional to the number of individual organisms present in each trophic level. p1207	21
94466701	Green world hypothesis	states that herbivores consume relatively little plant biomass because they are held in check by a variety of factors including predators, parasites and disease. p1208	22
94466702	Biogeochemical cycles	any of the various nutrient circuits, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. Chemical elements are passed between abiotic and biotic components of the ecosystem through the biogeochemical cycle. p1209	23
94466703	Nitrogen fixation	the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by certain prokaryotes into nitrogenous compounds that can be directly used by plants. Nitrogen can enter the ecosystem when certain prokaryotes convert N2 to minerals that can be used to synthesize nitrogenous organic compounds like amino acids. p1210	24
94466704	Nitrification	An activity that oxidizes ammonium to nitrite and then to nitrate by soil bacteria (making nitrogen available to plants). p1211	25
94466705	Denitrification	The conversion of nitrates back into nitrogen . p1211	26
94466706	Ammonification	the process in which the decomposition of organic nitrogen back to ammonium; carried out by bacterial and fungal decomposers. p1211	27
94466707	Long-term ecological research (LTER)	research conducted to follow dynamics of natural ecosystems over relatively long time periods. p1213	28
94466708	Critical load	the amount of added nitrogen that can be absorbed by plants without damaging ecosystem integrity. p1216	29
94466709	Cultural eutrophication	human intrusion that has disrupted freshwater ecosystems. Eutrophication that occurs as a result of sewage, factory wastes, and runoff of animal wastes and fertilizers from agricultural lands. p1216	30
94466710	Acid precipitation	rain, snow, or fog that has a pH less than 5.6. p1216	31
94466711	Biological magnification	a trophic process in which retained substances (poisons) become more concentrated with each level in the food chain. p1217	32
94466712	Greenhouse effect	the warming of planet Earth due to the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases, which reflect infrared radiation back toward Earth. p1219	33
94466713	Actual Evapotranspiration	The amount of water annually transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape, usually measured in millimeters.	34
94466714	Law of Conservation of Mass	mass cannot be created/destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, and be changed into different types of particles.	35