A1 The Biosphere Review Flashcards
What are the 3 interacting components that the Earth consists of?
-Atmosphere: the gaseous portion of the Earth
-hydrosphere: all of the water on Earth
-lithosphere (geosphere): the solid portion of the earth
Describe the atmosphere
-Layer of gasses (air) that surround and protect life on Earth
-pressure allows for liquid to exist
-absorbs ultraviolet solar radiation
-reduces temperature the extremes
What is dry air composed of?
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases (carbon dioxide, water vapour, etc)
What is the troposphere?
-Lowest level of Earth’s atmosphere
-contains nearly all atmospheric water vapour
-most weather takes place here
Describe the biosphere
-All areas on Earth that are inhabited by and support life
-Earth is a closed system to matter
-no matter enters or leaves the biosphere
-molecules are used and reused
Describe matter and energy
-Matter cycles and energy flows
-all life requires matter and energy
-earth is a closed system to matter
-no matter enters or leaves the biosphere
-molecules are used and reused
What is an organisms environment?
-Includes all the things that affect the organism and all the things the organism effects
What is biotic and abiotic?
-Biotic are the living components of the environment (predators, plants)
-abiotic are the non living components of the environment (sunlight, water, air)
What is a species?
-Organisms that are able to breed and produce viable offspring (offspring that can reproduce)
What is taxonomy?
-The practise of classifying living things
How is life organized?
Domain (3) - Dear
Kingdom - King
Phylum - Philip
Class - Comes
Order - Over
Family - For
Genus - Good
Species - Spaghetti
What are the 3 domains of life based on?
-The cellular composition of organisms
What are the domains of life?
- Bacteria
- Archaea
- Eukarya
Describe bacteria
-One of the 3 domains of life
-prokaryotic (lack a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular organisms, reproduce asexually, move by flagella
Describe archaea
-One of the 3 domains of life
-prokaryotic (lack a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular, produce asexually, distinctive plasma membrane and cell wall chemistry
Describe eukarya
-One of the 3 domains of life
-eukaryotic (have a membrane bound nucleus)
-unicellular or multicellular, sexual reproduction, each kingdom has specialization
What are the 6 kingdoms partially based on?
-Their mode of nutrition
What are the 6 kingdoms?
-Kingdom plantae: organisms that photosynthesize
-kingdom aramalia: ingest their food (eat)
-kingdom fungi: secret digestive enzymes and then absorb the molecules
-kingdom protista: vary
What is a dicthotomus key?
-Identification keys which use identifiable characteristics to identify organisms
-each step gives 2 choices (e.g red or not red)
What is binomial namenclature?
-Way to show names of organisms based on their classification systems
-uses genus (capital) and species (lowercase)
-in Latin and italicized
What is a population?
-Individuals of the same species living in a specific location at the same time
-e.g Canada are the same species but different populations
What is biodiversity?
-Differences that allow some members of a population to be better adapted to their environment
What is structural adaptation?
-Physical features of an organism
What is physiological adaptation?
-Internal responses to external stimuli (to maintain homeostasis)
What is behavioural adaptation?
-Activities that an organism does to survive the environment
-in animals controlled by nerves and hormones and in plants controlled by hormones or enzymes
-plants and animals respond to stimuli
What are the 3 categories of adaptations?
- Structural adaptation
- Physiological adaptation
- Behavioural adaptation
What is tropism?
-Used to describe the orientation of plants according to some stimulus
What are communities?
-Consists of all the individuals in all of the interacting populations in a given area
What is an ecosystem?
-A community of populations, together with the abiotic factors that surround and affect it
-includes all biotic and abiotic parts of the environment
What are the 2 types of competition?
-Intraspecific competition: competition between members of the same species
-interspecific competition: competing between members of different species
What is climate?
-The average weather conditions in a particular region over at least a 30 year period
How is climate determined?
-By temperature and precipitation resulting from the unequal heating of the earth, and other local factors (e.g. geography, snow cover, large bodies of water, etc)
What are biomes?
-A large ecosystem or group of ecosystems
-particular mixture of plants, animals and climate
-distribution is affected primarily by climate
