B15 - Ecology Flashcards
What are producers and what are examples of them?
Organisms that produce organic molecules (e.g. sugar) from simple inorganic ones (e.g. CO2 and water) using an energy source (e.g. light). All other organisms in a food chain depend upon them.
What are Consumer and what are examples of them?
Organisms that feed on the organic matter made by plants. They are heterotrophs. Examples: all animals, all fungi
What are Decomposers and what are examples of them?
Organisms that break down dead or undigested organic material. Decomposers are important in nutrient recycling. Example: bacteria and fungi
How do producers make their own food?
Through photosynthesis: green plants + algae
What is a community?
Made up of all the organisms, of all the species living within a habitat.
What is a biotic factor?
The living components of an ecosystem that affect the organisms living there.
Examples of biotic factors?
- Feeding relationships
- grazing by herbivores
- predation by carnivores
- parasitism by parasites
What is an abiotic factor?
The non-living components of an ecosystem that affecr the organisms living there.
Examples of Abiotic factors?
- Temperature
- light intensity
- oxygen concentration
- water availability
Food chains?
Each stage in a food chain is called a trophic level, the arrows represent a flow of energy and matter through the chain.
What happens in stage one of the carbon cycle?
Carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide from respiration and combustion.
What happens in stage 2 of the carbon cycle?
Carbon dioxide is absorbed by producers to make carbohydrates in photosynthesis.
What happens in stage 3 of the carbon cycle?
Animals feed on plants, passing the carbon compounds along the food chain. Most carbon they consume is exhaled as carbon dioxide during respiration. The animals and plants eventually die.
What happens in stage 4 of the carbon cycle?
Dead organisms are eaten by decomposers and carbon in their bodies is returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. In some conditions decomposition is blocked. The plant and animal material may then be available as fossil fuel in the future for combustion.
What is the water cycle?
The water cycle is also known as the hydrological cycle. It describes how water moves on, above, or just below the surface of our planet.
Water molecules move between various locations - such as rivers, oceans and the atmosphere - by specific processes. Water can change state.
What happens at the start of the water cycle?
Evaporation
Energy from the Sun heats the Earth’s surface and water evaporates from oceans, rivers and lakes. The warm air rises, carrying water vapour with it.
What happens in the second stage of the water cycle?
Transpiration
Transpiration from plants releases water vapour into the air.
What happens in the third stage of the water cycle?
Condensation
The moist air cools down as it rises. Water vapour condenses back into liquid water, and this condensation process produces clouds.
What happens in the fourth stage of the water cycle?
Precipitation
As the water droplets in the cloud get bigger and heavier, they begin to fall as rain, snow and sleet. This is called precipitation (it is not the same as precipitation in Chemistry).
