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| * What is the definition of an ecosystem? | An ecosystem consists of ALL the organisms in a given area PLUS all the abiotic factors with which they interact. p.896 |
| * _____ flows through ecosystems while _____ cycles within them. | Energy, matter p.897 |
| * What is the first law of thermodynamics? | Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed (also known as the principle of conservation of energy) p. 897 |
| * In any energy transformation, some energy is always "lost" to the environment as ____. | heat p.897 |
| ** Energy flowing through ecosystems is ultimately _____. | dissipated into space as heat. p.897 |
| *The trophic level that ultimately supports all other trophic levels is the ____, also called the ____. | primary producers, a.k.a. autotrophs p.898 |
| ** What are the four different types of autotrophs? | Plants, algae (photosynthetic Protists), and photosynthetic prokaryotes (photosynthetic bacteria) all produce their own food through photosynthesis. A fourth type of producer, the chemosynthetic prokaryotes make their own food using energy from simple chemicals, usually near volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean. p.898 |
| * All organisms from the second trophic level on are called ____, a.k.a. ____. | heterotrophs, consumers p.898 |
| * Organisms in the second trophic level are called ____ or ____. | primary consumers, herbivores p.898 |
| * Organisms that eat herbivores are found in the third trophic level and are called ____ or ____. | secondary consumers, carnivores (although you could find an omnivore at this level) p.898 |
| * Organisms that eat other carnivores and are found in the fourth trophic level would be called ____. | tertiary consumers p.898 |
| ** Another word for decomposer is ____. | detritivore p.898 |
| * Another word for detritivore is ____. | decomposer p.898 |
| ** Non-living organic matter is called ____. | detritus p.898 |
| * The two main types of decomposers are ____ and ____. | prokaryotes (bacteria) and fungi p.898 |
| * The amount of light energy converted into chemical energy during a given time period is an ecosystem's _____. | primary production p.899 |
| ** Total primary production in an ecosystem is known as the ecosystem's _____. | gross primary production (GPP) p.899 |
| ** What is net primary production (NPP) equal to? | Net primary production (NPP) = Gross primary production (GPP) - energy that is used by the producers for respiration (R) p.899 |
| ** What are two ways to measure net primary production? | Net primary production can be measured as energy per unit area per year, or as biomass of producers per unit area per year (since the mass of a plant minus the water is proportional to the amount of energy stored in the producer) p.899 |
| * A(n) ____ is something that must be added in order for primary production to increase in a certain area. | limiting nutrient (It is limiting because it is in short supply and therefor limits autotroph growth) p.900 |
| * What are the two nutrients that are most likely to be limiting nutrients in an aquatic ecosystem? | nitrogen and phosphorus p.900 |
| ** Besides nitrogen and phosphorus, what is a limiting nutrient often found (in too short of a supply) way out at sea? | Iron (because it is usually delivered to the ocean as windblown dust, so usually, the further out from land you are, the smaller the concentration) p.901 |
| ** Two main causes of eutrophication in freshwater ecosystems are ____ and ____. | sewage, fertilizer runoff from farms (Remember, eutrophication is the process of water becoming more nutrient-rich which leads to algal blooms) p.901,  |
| ** _____ and _____ are the main abiotic factors controlling primary production in terrestrial ecosystems. | temperature, moisture (Tropical rainforests, with their high levels of humidity and high temperatures are the most productive of terrestrial ecosystems. The reason the term moisture is used instead of precipitation is because high rainfall in low humidity or windy areas may leave less available water to plants than lesser rainfall in high humidity areas with less wind, because the water will evaporate quickly out of the soil if the air is dry and it is windy) p. 901 |
| ** If a caterpillar feeds on a plant leaf that has 100 Joules of energy in it, and the caterpillar stores 20 Joules as new caterpillar biomass, burns 40 Joules for its own energy needs by respiration, and can't digest the other 40 Joules but instead passes it out as fecal matter, what is the net secondary production, the assimilation of primary production, and the production efficiency? | The assimilation is 60 Joules. Of that, 20 Joules was used for net secondary production (growth of the caterpillar). So the production efficiency is 20 J/60 J = 33% (You don't count the 40 Joules that wasn't assimilated but was instead passed out the anus) p.904 |
| ** _______ efficiency refers to the energy processing efficiency of a single organism while _____ efficiency refers to the efficiency of an entire level of the ecological pyramid. | Production efficiency, trophic efficiency p.904 |
| ** ______ efficiency is always less than an organism's production efficiency because it takes into account energy lost in _____ and energy from lower trophic levels that is not _____ | Trophic efficiency, feces, not consumed p.904 |
| ** ______ efficiency is the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next. | Trophic p.904 |
| ** Trophic efficiencies usually range from ____ to ____ percent. | 5 to 20% (which means that 80 to 95% of the energy in lower trophic levels is not passed up and stored as biomass in the next trophic level. Overall, the average trophic efficiency is 10%) p.904 |
** The image below depicts a(n) _____.,  | energy pyramid p.905, |
** The image below depicts a(n) _____.,  | biomass pyramid p.905, |
** According to the graph below, what is the limiting nutrient in the salt marsh from which these data were collected?,  | nitrogen (notice that there was no change when only phosphorus was added) p.902 (The graph is not found on p.902 but the concept of only the limiting nutrient affecting productivity when added is), |
* In this pyramid of net production, how much energy will be found at each level if the trophic efficiency is 10%?,  | p.905,  |
* What are the implications of this diagram?,  | More people in this world could be fed if we ate a vegetarian diet instead of feeding our vegetarian diet to cows (and chickens, pigs, etc.) and then eating their meat. p.906, |
| ** In marine ecosystems, there may be a(n) _____ biomass pyramid because phytoplankton reproduce quickly, but also get eaten quickly by zooplankton. | inverted (If you measured all the biomass of phytoplankton that grew over a year, the productivity would be much higher than the zooplankton. However, the "standing crop" of phytoplankton at any given time is small because they get eaten quickly, keeping their numbers low. Phytoplankton have what is called a "short turnover time.") pp.905 & 906 |
| * In the water cycle, water changes from the liquid to the gaseous form by ____. | evaporation p.908 |
| * In the water cycle, water changes from the gaseous to the liquid form by ____. | condensation p.908 |
| * Condensed water in the atmosphere that falls toward Earth is called ____. | precipitation p.908 |
| * Water evaporates from the surface of leaves in a process called ____. | transpiration p.908,  |
| * The element that forms the backbone of all organic molecules is ____. | carbon p.908 |
| * A crucial element needed to make amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids is ____. | nitrogen p.909 |
| * The atmosphere is approximately 80% _____ gas. | nitrogen p.909 |
| * In the nitrogen cycle, the conversion by bacteria of nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into forms that can be used by autotrophs to synthesize organic nitrogen compounds, is called ____. | nitrogen fixation p.909,  |
| ** In the nitrogen cycle, the conversion by bacteria of the ammonium ion into the nitrate ion is called ____., | nitrification p.909,  |
| ** Organic nitrogen (like that found in decomposing proteins) is converted by bacteria into the ammonium ion in a process called ____. | ammonification p.909, |
| ** Under anaerobic conditions, bacteria can convert the nitrate ion into ____ during the process of denitrifcation., | N2 (gaseous nitrogen) p.909 |
| ** Under anaerobic conditions, bacteria can convert the nitrate ion into N2 (gaseous nitrogen) during the process of _______., | denitrification p.909 |
| * The element that is crucial for the formation of nucleic acids, ATP and phospholipids is _____. | phosphorus p.909 |
** The ion below is called the ____ ion.,  | p.909, |
** The ion below is called the ____ ion.,  | p.909, |
** The ion below is called the ____ ion.,  | p.909,  |
** The ion below is called the ____ ion.,  | p.909,  |
| ** Of the major nutrient cycles, which have a significant gaseous component at some point of the cycle? | The carbon, nitrogen and water cycles (Phosphorus does not) pp. 907 - 909 |
| ** In tropical rainforest, most of the organic material is stored in the ____. | trunks of trees p.906 |
| ** In tropical rainforest,very little organic matter is found in ____. | the soil (because the warmer moister climate causes leaves to decompose so rapidly that soil doesn't have a chance to accumulate) p.906 |
| ** In temperate forests, most of the organic material is stored in ____. | the soil p.906 |
| ** Any of the various nutrient circuits, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. | Biogeochemical cycle p.907 |
| * The amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) by autotrophs in an ecosystem during a given time period. | primary production p.899 |
| ** The fraction of food energy that is not used for respiration. | production efficiency p.904 |
| * A process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of autotrophs such as algae and cyanobacteria. | eutrophication p.900,  |
| ** The amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given time period. | secondary production p904 |
| * Which type of organism is crucial to the nitrogen cycle? | prokaryotes (different types of bacteria change nitrogen containing molecules from one form to the next in the nitrogen cycle) p.909 |
| ** An approach to restoration ecology that uses organisms to add essential materials to a degraded ecosystem is called ____. | biological augmentation p.913 |
| ** The use of living organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems is called ____. | bioremediation p.911 |
| ** _______ ecologists seek to initiate or speed up the recovery of degraded ecosystems. | Restoration ecologists p.911 |
| ** What is the second law of thermodynamics? | Every exchange of energy increases the entropy (disorder) of the universe. p.897 |
| * What is the law of conservation of mass? | Matter cannot be created or destroyed. p.897 |
| ** On average, net primary production is about ___% of gross primary production. | 50% p. 899 |
| ** Eutrophication can lead to the development of _____ which can lead to ______ and ______ when the decomposition of the algae uses up the available _____ in the water | algal blooms, fish-kills, dead zones, oxygen pp. 900 & 901 |
| ** _______ is the amount of new biomass (of primary producers) added to an ecosystem in a given amount of time. | Net primary production (NPP) p.899 |
| ** What's the difference between net ecosystem production (NEP) and net primary production (NPP)? | Net ecosystem production (NEP) is the total biomass accumulation of all organisms in an ecosystem, not just primary producers. p.900 |
| ** Globally, which element limits plant growth the most? | nitrogen p.902 |
| ** The root word "auto-" means ___. | "self" (Autotroph is a self-feeding organism. "Troph" means food or nourishment) |
| ** The root word "de-" means ___. | opposite, remove, reduce (denitrification: the process of converting nitrate back to nitrogen) |
| * The root word "hetero-" means ___. | other, different (heterotroph: an organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products) |
| * What are the two nutrients that are most likely to be limiting nutrients in an terrestrial ecosystem? | nitrogen and phosphorus p.902 |
| ** An ecosystem that stores more carbon than it loses (Net ecosystem production NEP > 0) is said to be a carbon _____. | sink p.903 |
| ** An ecosystem that releases more carbon than it stores (Net ecosystem production NEP < 0) is said to be a carbon _____. | source p.903 |
| * Ecosystems that were once carbon sinks but are now carbon sources contribute to _____ change. | climate (This is disturbingly true of many areas of the tundra. As they have warmed up due to climate change, permafrost is melting which exposes the soil to more decomposition. This releases the carbon in the soil as CO2 which contributes to more warming and even more decomposition of the soil. In addition, methane gas trapped in the permafrost is being released and this is an even stronger greenhouse gas than CO2. This demonstrates a concept called "positive feedback loops" which we will learn more about in this course) p.903 |
| * Energy transfer between trophic levels is typically only ____ % efficient. | 10% p.904 |
| ** ______ is the amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to new biomass during a given period. | secondary production p.904 |
| ** ______ is the amount of energy an organism has consumed and used for growth and reproduction. | Net secondary production (this is basically the amount of energy that wasn't actually used for energy, but instead stored in the body, or that of a developing offspring, and therefore used for growth. If food is burned for energy, it can't be used for growth since the products of the metabolism of food leave the body, mostly as CO2 and H20 from cellular respiration) p.904 |
| ** ____ consists of the total amount of energy an organism has consumed AND used for growth, reproduction, and respiration. | Assimilation (Basically, any food that an organism eats AND digests, is assimilate, and can be used to grow or burned for energy. The undigested food that comes out as feces is not assimilated) p.904 |
| * Food that an organism eats can be used for ___ or ____, but not both. | energy, growth (If food is burned to supply energy, it cannot be used to help the organism grow because the atoms in the food leave the body as waste products of cellular respiration, mostly CO2 and H20. Only food that is not burned gets stored and makes the organism bigger or fatter, a concept well-known to dieters) p.904 |
| * Organisms that need to burn energy in order to maintain their _____ have much lower production efficiencies than organisms that don't have to do this. | body temperature ("Warm-blooded" organisms have to eat a lot more food than "cold-blooded" organisms because they have to burn a lot of their food to heat their bodies. If the food is being burned, it can't be used for growth) p.904 |
| * Most food chains/webs include only about ___ or ___ trophic levels. | 4 or 5 (This is due to the fact that only about 10% of the energy in one trophic level gets passed up and stored in the next. Therefore, by the time you get to the 4th or 5th trophic levels, there is very little potential energy and matter that gets passed up to them) p.904 |
| * TRUE or FALSE: Temperate forests (like the ones around us) have thicker, more nutrient rich soils than tropical rain forests. | TRUE (Even though tropical rain forests are more productive, when leaves or trees die, they decompose very quickly and the nutrients are recycled back up into trees almost right away. Decomposition in temperate forests occurs more slowly due to the dryer colder climate, allowing soils to build up. Comparatively, tropical rain forests have thin nutrient-poor soils) p. 906) |
| * Which biological process adds substantial amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year? | cellular respiration p.908 |
| * Which biological process removes substantial amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year? | photosynthesis p.908 |
