7 Flashcards
Ecosystem?
Refers to all components of ecological systems both biotic and abiotic that influence the flow of energy and elements.
Raymond Lindeman Group?
Organizing organisms on how they obtain energy.
Primary production?
Chemical energy generated by autotrophs by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.
Primary productivity?
The rate of primary production.
Gross primary production (GPP)?
Total amount of carbon fixed by autotrophs.
Leaf area index?
NPP (Net Primary Production)?
GPP - Respiration
What is NPP used for? (2•)
•Amount of energy captured by autotrophs that results in an increase in biomass (living plant matter) and is the •energy left over for plant growth.
What does a higher NPP means?
Less productivity because not a lot of respiration is occurring.
NPP Varies? (2•)
•Over space and time, and •mostly correlated with climate.
How does NPP get affected with a warming environment?
NPP increases.
Allochthonous inputs?
External energy inputs.
Autochthonous energy?
Energy produced by autotrophs within the system.
Trophic pyramid?
A way to represent the trophic biomass and energy.
Percentage of energy and biomass transfer per trophic level?
10% per trophic level.
In aquatic systems, how is the trophic pyramid different?
Although energy is the same, the pyramid for biomass is reversed since phytoplankton (r-selected) has high turnover.
Factors affecting energy flow?
•amount of NPP at base of food web
•Proportion of each trophic level consumed by the one above it
•Nutritional content of autotrophs, detritus, and prey
•Efficiency of energy transfers.
Bioaccumulation?
Some chemicals aren’t metabolized or excreted and become more concentrated in tissues over an organism’s lifetime.
Biomagnification?
Concentration increases when going up in higher trophic levels, like mercury from tuna to a human.
In the nitrogen cycle, which pool includes the most nitrogen?
Detritus.
How does nitrogen fixation occur?
Mutualisms with mycorrhizal fungi.
Four main types of ecosystem services? (4•)
Provisioning, supporting, cultural, regulating
