AP Environmental Science Flashcards
Unit 1
What are the levels of an Ecotsystem?
Individual, Population, Community, Ecosystem, Biome, Biosphere
What is an ecosystem?
all living and non-living organisms
What is a biome?
large area with similar climate, in a region based on yearly temperatures and precipitation
What is Predation?
Organisms eat other organisms (Parasitoids, herbivores, Carnivores, parasite
What is Competition?
organisms fighting over a resource
Mutalism
Benefits species together (coral)
Commensalism
One organisms out of two is benefited
Symbiosis
close and long term interaction between 2 organisms of different species
Lichen
composite organism when the species is so close that it is considered one
Resource Partitioning
different species use same resource in different ways to reduce competition
Spatial
different areas of a shared habitat
Morphological
using different resource based on evolved body features
Interspecific
Competition between species of different species
Infraspecific
Competition between individuals of same species
Community of organisms are…
uniquely adapted to the biome they live in
What determines a biome?
Latitude
Biome shifts
on location as climate changes, and then plants and animals shift to be in certain climates
TRF (tropical rainforests)
bad nutrients
Boreal forest
poor nutrients
temperate rainforest
rich nutrients
Salinity
the amount of salt in water
Depth
shows sunlight to reach plants for photosynthesis
Flow
determines what organisms can survive with O2 (can dissolve in water)
Temperature
warm water holds less dissolve O2to support for aquatic organisms
Rivers
high O2 levels
lakes
fresh H2O
Littoral
shallow water
limnetic
light can reach
profundal
to deep for photosynthesis
benthic
bottom/ nutrient rich
Estuaries
-Rivers in to the ocean
-Mixed of fresh and salt water
-high plant growth
Coral Reef
-Warm shallow water
-Mutualistic relationship (algae (lives in coral) and coral)
Open Ocean
-70% of Earth
-algae and phytoplankton can survive (asorbs CO2 and produce O2)
Wetland
-soil submerged in water
-shallow or emergent plants
-plants are adapted to have roots soaked
- Benefits: stores excess water, roots filyter out pollutants, recharges ground water
Salt Marshes
-temperate climates
-Breeding ground for plants
-Mangrove plants: tropical climates)
-Mangrove tress blacks the water
Intertidal Zones
-Narrow band of coastline
-drying out
-organism adapt to waves
Carbon Cycle
nature’s way of reusing carbon atoms, which travel from the atmosphere into organisms in the Earth and then back into the atmosphere over and over again (look in com book)
Carbon sink
anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases
Nitrogen cycle
a biogeochemical process through which nitrogen is converted into many forms, consecutively passing from the atmosphere to the soil to organism and back into the atmosphere (look in comp book)
Water Cycle
movement between sources and sinks
Ocean is the…
largest water ressvoir
Evaporation
vapor (stomata opens to allow water to evaporate)
Precipitation
gas to liquid
Amount of H2O that enters the atmosphere is from
Transpirsipitation and evaporation combined
runoff
flows over earth’s surface into a body of water and gather pollutants
Infilteration
trickes throughsoil down into ground water aquifiers
important freshwater sources are…
ground and surface water
Phosphurus cycle
Movement of P atoms and molecules between sources and sinks/ resevoirs
Parts of a P cycle
-Slow
-no gas is in the cycle
-limiting nutrient
- all organisms need it
-Wind breaks down rocks and phosphate
Major ressevoirs
Rocks and sediments
Synthetic
sources of P like mining phosphate materials and adding it to products like detergent
Assimilation
the process of incorporating a nutrient into an organism’s cells (similar to N cycle)
Eutrophication
too much in N and P
P sediments…
can be compressed over long periods of time
algae bloom
covers surface of water
Primary Productivity (PP)
rate of solar energy is converted into organic compunds
High productivity
- high plant growth
- lots of food and shelter
-More diverse species
Respiration Loss (RL)
Planys use up some of the enrgy generated by photosynthesis
Gross Primary Product (GPP)
total amount of energy plants catch and convert to energy through photosynthesis
Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
Amount of energy leftover for plant growth (NPP= GPP-RL)
Water availability
high temperature and nutrient Availability
1st Law of Thermodynamics
energy is never changed or destroyed
Due to Availability…
energy decreases with each step of the food chain
troph
-Nourishment
-used to model energy moving through the ecosystem
Producers
convert sunlight energy into chemical energy
Food webs
Theflow of energy in a community
Food chain
shows single pathways
Trophic cascade
prey they eat increases but plants decrease and other animals that eat the plants also decrease (colapse of the food web)
To caculate…
Move decimal point 8 (tertiary), 80Secondary consumer), 800 (primary consumer), 8000 (producer)
