B4 Ecosystems Flashcards
What is an ecosystem Ecosystem
What are the organisms living in an are called ?
What is the place they live called?
What population
Made up of all the Lviv tips organisms and physical conditions in the area
Organisms living in an ecosystem are called communities (for example the community in a pond ecosystem are frogs fish insects (basically all the species ))
The are they live is the habitat
The total amount of organisms in a species is called its POPULATION
What are the difference between produces consumers and decomposed with examples
Producers are always at th starts of the food chain. They make their food using energy transferred by sunlight in photosynthesis such as plants and algae
Consumers : those who eat the producers as source of food . This can be in different levels, ALL ANIMALS.
- primary consumer eat producer, secondary eat primary, tertiary eat secondary
Decomposers : also consumers but special- they gain food by feeding on decaying / deceased material . (Carrion )like microorganisms .
Energy transferred between organisms all come from the sun tbh. Plants do photosynthesis to make glucose, which they use to also increase their biomass . Then a consumer eats them and use their biomass as means for energy, which they also use to make their biomass etc.
What is a trophies level?
Tropic levels are levels of a food chain, a step in it.
Food web is a representation of what animals eat , as compared to a food chain animals eat more then one food source - series of food chains. The ya re INTERLINKED FIID CHAINS
What factors effect ecosystem : biotic / abiotic
Biotic factors: to do with living
- includes the number of trees, the squirrels, hedgehogs etc
- But focussed on the number of predators, number of prey, amount of food
- basically competition
ABIOTIC
- non living environmental things
- temperature, moistures, soil pH, , light intensity etc
How do the 4 abiotic ones effect communities
What have plants countered low light intensity
Temp= cold and warm blood, plants?
- Light intensity : more light available the more success a plant has for photosynthesis . However in areas of low light, plants have evolved to counter this, such as broader leaves , or fungi coming who are better with Less light intensity .
- Soil PH. : soil pH comes from the minerals present . Some plants grow better in acidic conditions, others in alkaline. Therefore, if those conditions changed, then the species of a plant may die
- Moisture Level: less water means less photosynthesis and plants become eventually plasmolysied . And wilt because of loss of tugor pressure . AT THE SAME TIME, some adapted for waterlogged, others dry, others damp…
- Temperature
Temperature key factor in rate of photosynthesis, and so warmer means more. Also cold, blooded animals rely on temperature to keep them warm , and so colder environments they die,
Hat is competition effects and what do plants and animals compete for?
5 things for both
As their are limited resources, organisms must compete with each other , and often results in the weaker organism losing out and dying.
Plants compete for:
- Light, water, carbon dioxide, minerals and Space
Anamils
- food, WATER, mates, space (territory ), shelter
If there is a large amount of food available, or little predators what would happen
Example of mutualism?
Yh increase basically common sens e
What isinterdependence and what are the three ecological relationships
Example for mutualism?
Interdependence is the idea that species depend by being AFFECTED on each other, such as prey and predator species
Parasitism, mutualism and predation
Predation: relationship between predator and prey, and the size of the prey and predator population are proportional
Parasitism: relationship when one parasite benefits of another organism and the bist (like mosquito human) suffers, tapeworms rtc
Mutualism: where both organisms benefit from each other existence, symbiosis. This is like oxpeckers that eat insects from buffalos, and buffalos then remain pest free. Or xooanthalea and phyplankton.
Also insects who polonaise plants get nectar for rewards
More on predation ecology and the cycle like how it works
What do these cycles show?
Rabbit and fox example
As rabbit population high, there will e lot of food for fox , so there population increases. As a result, rabbits population will decrease.
This means less rabbits means less fox population for next generation, and so now with less foxes the rabbit populations can stabiles again- its a continuous cycyle
Thing about the cycle is the effects are out of phase with each other, because when one thing happens it takes a bit of time for that to effect the other populations …
They show interdependent species are….
What is pyramid of numbers and then pyramid of biomass?
What do pyradmid of numbers don’t take into account that biomass does, but what is,problem with getting data for biomass?
1) Pyramids f numbers show the population at each tropic level that came from the tropics level before it- this is represented by its width.
- as yo up the NUMBER of organism decrease but SIZE usually increase
- for example, 100 caterpillars let 10 blue tits survive which let 3 bruh survive and 1 that.
2) However pyramid of numbers don’t take into account size or biomass of organisms ONLY NUMBERS, therefore they can be inverted.
Such as 1 tree feeds 2000 caterpillars which gives 100 tots and one hawk- inverted
2) pyramid of biomass take into account both size and number of organisms by displaying how much biomass makes the biomass of another organism…
3) problem with biomass calculations is the organism have to be dead, and dried in a KILN, as water content varies between organisms. This can be difficult and more importantly unethical and a waste for some data
How can you draw pyramid of biomass
Use a scale, such as 1cm = 10kg, and do the width, the heights are the same…
) how much percent do consumers roughly convert into actual biomass when eating? WHY IS THIS SO (4 reasons )
Why does biomass decrease each tropic level ?
1) how much energy to producers actually transfer from the sunlight into CHEMICAL STORES FOR ENERGY? How much is then used for actual biomass?
1) 1%, most is reflected. The remaining energy is limited on limiting factors. Then half is used for respiration, and half to increase the organism biomass.
2) then only 10% of what a consumer eats actually ends up being converted into biomass
This is because
- 1) some of the biomass is used for respiration, for movement and keeping warm and like active transport…
2) Some is lost in egestion, this is because some of the biomass can’t be DIGESTED, like hair and teeth or some leaves. This leaves in faeces
2) some is lost in excretion: this is the loss of waste products, such as urea in urine…
3) not all of the biomass is eaten, such as bones or PLANT ROOTS.
Therefore not all of the biomass in a previous organism is transferred for more biomass- some is, the rest is used up or lost…
Summary
1) egestion - hair and teeth
2) excretion- urea in hire
3) respiration- biomass used here to make ATP instead of biomass (active transport movement and heating)
4) not all eaten- bones and roots
) how much percent do consumers roughly convert into actual biomass when eating? WHY IS THIS SO
then only 10% of what a consumer eats actually ends up being converted into biomass
This is because
- 1) some of the biomass is used for respiration, for movement and keeping warm and like active transport…
2) Some is lost in egestion, this is because some of the biomass can’t be DIGESTED, like hair and teeth or some leaves. This leaves in faeces
2) some is lost in excretion: this is the loss of waste products, such as urea in urine…
3) not all of the biomass is eaten, such as bones or PLANT ROOTS.
Therefore not all of the biomass in a previous organism is transferred for more biomass- some is, the rest is used up or lost…
So why are trophies levels in food chains normally max 4-5?
This is because the amount of energy transferred into biomass becomes less and less, and so a large plant can only support a small animal, which can barely support a bigger animal and eventually not at all .
Not eneough energy /biomass left that can be transferred to sustain life processes for organisms after 4-5th stage
How to calculate efficiency if biomass?
Biomass available after eating / biomass that was available x 100
