| A | B |
|---|
| PROTEINS | Organisms need nitrogen to make what? |
| NITROGEN CYCLE | The ______ _______ moves nitrogen from the environment into organisms |
| PLANTS | Nitrogen is essential for _________ |
| ROOTS | How do plants get nitrogen? |
| NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA | What changes the nitrogen into a usable form? (In the soil) |
| BACTERIA | What organisms do the nitrogen fixation for plants? |
| NITROGEN CYCLE | The circulation and reutilization of nitrogen in both inorganic and organic phases |
| 78% | How much of earth's atmosphere is nitrogen |
| AMMONIFICATION | Decomposers convert organic waste into ammonia. |
| NITRIFICATION | Ammonium converted into nitrate and nitrite (NO2-) through work of nitrifying bacteria. |
| DENITRIFICATION | Nitrates in the soil are broken down by these organisms, and nitrogen is released into the atmosphere. |
| BACTERIA | large group of one-celled organisms. Some types of bacteria help in the process of nitrogen fixation. |
| DENITRIFICATION | release nitrogen back to the atmosphere |
| NITRIFICATION | Conversion of ammonium ions NH4+ into nitrites NO2- and nitrates NO3-. |
| DECOMPOSITION | Nitrogen is added to the soil when waste materials and dead organic matter is broken down |
| ABIOTIC | All of the non-living components of an ecosystem |
| BIODIVERSITY | The variety of life in the world in a particular habitat or ecosystem. |
| CLIMAX COMMUNITY | An ecological community in which populations of plants or animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and their environment; the final stage of succession |
| ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION | The gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another. |
| EUTROPHICATION | High levels of nutrients are discharged into a waterway. This encourages plant and algae growth. When the plants and algae die, bacteria break them down. The bacteria use oxygen to do this and the oxygen levels go down. Animals and other organisms that live in the water die from lack of oxygen. |
| PIONEER SPECIES | A species that colonizes an uninhabited area: the beginning of primary succession. |
| SUSTAINABILITY | lichens and mosses come in first to stabilize and enrich the soil. |
| SECONDARY SUCCESSION | A type of succession that occurs where an existing community is disturbed, but the soil remains intact |
| LICHENS | the pioneer species in an area where no soil exists. Made of an alga and a fungus living in close association |
| ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION | process by which one community of organisms slowly replaces another in an area |
| CLIMAX COMMUNITY | dominant community of plants and animals that come to live in an area; stable ecosystem |
| PRIMARY SUCCESSION | Succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists. |
| PIONEER SPECIES | lichens and mosses come in first to stabilize and enrich the soil. |
| SUCCESSION | the series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time. |
| CLIMAX COMMUNITY | A stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species over time |
| SECONDARY SUCCESSION | takes place where a community had been removed; soil is present |
| PRIMARY SUCCESSION | slower process, builds new land, has pioneer species |
| PRIMARY SUCCESSION | occurs on an area of newly exposed rock, sand, lava, or any area that has not been occupied previously by any living community; no soil is present |
| SECONDARY SUCCESSION | occurs faster, rebuilds land, has soil |
| PIONEERY SPECIES | First species to populate an area during primary succession |
| GROUNDWATER | water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock. |
| PERCOLATION | the movement of water through the soil itself |
| FLORA | PLANT LIFE |
| FAUNA | ANIMAL LIFE |
| CLIMATE | The amount of rain fall and temperature in an are |
| CONDENSATION | the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water |
| PRECIPITATION | rain, snow, sleet, hail |
| EVAPORATION | the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor |
| RUNOFF | water flowing accross the land surface due to gravity |
| TRANSPIRATION | the evaporation of water through minute pores, or stomata, in the leaves of plants |
| CARRYING CAPACITY | Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support. |
| DENSITY DEPENDENT FACTOR | Factors, such as starvation, that increase directly as the population density increases |
| DENSITY INDEPENDENT FACTOR | Limiting factor whose effects on a population are constant regardless of population density. |
| INVASIVE SPECIES | Plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native. |
| LIMITING FACTOR | Anything that restricts the size of a population. |
| DENSITY DEPENDENT FACTOR | include factors such as competition, predation, parasitism and disease. |
| DENSITY INDEPENDENT FACTOR | All species populations in the same ecosystem will be similarly affected, regardless of population size. Factors include: weather, climate and natural disasters. |
| NITROGEN FIXATION | conversion of nitrogen gas into nitrogen containing substances |
| NODULES | The enlargement or swelling on roots of nitrogen-fixing plants. |
| SCAVENGER | an organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant material |
| DETRITIVORE | organism that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the ecosystem |
| SAPROPHYTES | organism, especially a fungus or bacterium, that lives on and gets its nourishment from dead organisms or decaying organic material |
| DECOMPOSER | any organism that breaks down or eats decaying material for its energy source |
| FOOD WEB | all of the food chains in an ecosystem |
| FOOD CHAIN | a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another |
| AUTOTROPH | an organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals |
| DETRITUS | typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material |
| PRIMARY CONSUMER | an organism that gets energy from plants and provides the energy needed for other types of consumers to use |
| HETEROTROPH | an organism that gets energy from other plants or animals for energy and nutrients |
| PRODUCER | an organism that creates its own food or energy |
| AUTOTROPH | same as a producer |
| HETEROTROPH | same as consumer |
