20- organisms and their enviroments Flashcards
food chain
a diagram showing the flow of energy from one
organism to the next, beginning with a producer.
food web
a network of interconnected food chains.
main energy input and how is it transferred between organisms
sun, in a food chain by ingestion
trophic level
the position of an organism in a food chain, food
web, pyramid of numbers or biomass.
how is the energy lost in the enviroment
- respiration, movement
- animals dont eat the whole organism
- not all food molecules are digested or absorbed
producers
organisms that produce their own organic nutrients using energy from sunlight
herbivores
an animal that gets its energy from eating plants
carnivore
an animal that gets it energy by eating other animals
primary consumers
herbivores- feed on producers
decomposers
organisms that get their energy from dead waste or organism material; fungi, bacteria
interdependence
how the change in one population can affect others within the food web
why are food chains limited
because of inefficient loss of energy at each trophic level
pyramid of number
Diagram that represents the relationship between the number of organisms in each trophic level in food chain.
pyramid of biomass
it represents the dry mass of organisms at each trophic in the food chain
biomass
the total dry mass of a population.
the three processes that release CO2
respiration, combustion, decomposition
three places CO2 in stored
in living things, oceans, fossil fuels
the carbon cycle
1- Carbon is taken out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis
2-I t is passed on to animals and decomposers by feeding
3- it is returned by respiration; in plants, in animals and in decomposing microorganisms
**In addition, it is returned (in increasing amounts) by combustion of fossil fuels
nitrogen fixation
changing nitrogen into a reactive form
6 ways of nitrogen fixation
1- lightning 4- nitrifying bacteria
2- fertilizers 5- animal excretion
3- nitrogen fixing bacteria 6-denitrifying bacteria
lightning in nitrogen fixation
Allow nitrogen gas to combine with oxygen to form
nitrogen oxide, then dissolved in rain & washed into soil
to form nitrates.
fertilizers in nitrogen fixation
Ammonia is used to make ammonium compounds and
nitrates to be part of the fertilizers.
nitrogen fixing bacteria
They use nitrogen gas from air & combine it with other
substances to make ammonium ions, to fix nitrogen to make proteins.
nitrifying bacteria
Found in soil or in root nodules on plants as peas.
They use nitrogen gas from air & combine it with other
substances to make ammonium ions, to fix nitrogen to make proteins.