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Biology 20 AP > Ch. 1 - Energy Transfer in Biosphere > Flashcards

Ch. 1 - Energy Transfer in Biosphere Flashcards

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1
Q

What is ecology? What does it link?

A

The study of the relationship between organisms and their environments (ecosystems). Links technology, culture, and nature.

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2
Q

What are the three types of systems?

A
  1. Open system: allow for transfer of energy and matter.
  2. Closed system: allow for transfer of energy, but is closed to matter. This is the Earth.
  3. Isolated system: transfer of neither energy nor matter. This is not realistically possible.
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3
Q

What are the biosphere? What is it comprised of?

A

Part of the Earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life.

Composed of 3 other spheres that interact: atmosphere, geosphere/lithosphere, hydrosphere

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4
Q

What is the atmosphere?

A

Gaseous part of the Earth, concentrated within 10km of the Earth’s surface.

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5
Q

What is the geosphere/lithosphere?

A

The solid part of the Earth.

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6
Q

What is the hydrosphere?

A

Solid and liquid water environments that support life.

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7
Q

What is a dynamic equilibirum?

A

Changes are continoually occuring, but small adjustments are made to keep the whole system stable (counter) (Gaia hypothesis).
If the balance is disrupted, # of healthy organisms goes down (indicator species).

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8
Q

What is the difference between the biosphere and the ecosystem?

A

Biosphere: entirety
Ecosystem: that specific one

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9
Q

What is the ecosystem?

A

Any part of the Earth in which living organisms and non-living substances interact and through which materials are cycled and energy flows.

The community of living organisms (biotic) and the non-living (abiotic; water, minerals, sun, rock, climate, wind) factors they interact with.

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10
Q

What can the components in an ecosystem/biosphere be divided into?

A

Abiotic (non-living)
Biotic (living)

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11
Q

What can abiotic components in an ecosystem/biosphere be divided into?

A

Chemical components
- Nitrogen, Water, Carbon, Phosphorous
- Other periodic table elements and combinations
Physical components
- Sun
- Temperature
- Wind

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12
Q

What can biotic components in an ecosystem/biosphere be divided into?

A

Producers, decomposers, consumers

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13
Q

What is the First Law of thermodynamics?

A

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.

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14
Q

What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

A

In every energy conversion, energy is lost and less energy is available for the next conversion (wasted energy).
- No energy conversion is 100% efficient
- As energy’s transformed from one organism to another, much energy is lost to the environment as unusable heat.

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15
Q

Where does most of the energy from the biosphere come from?

A

The Sun

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16
Q

How much energy actually reaches the earth?

A

Only a small portion of the Sun’s energy.

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17
Q

Daily, 1 x 10^22 J of radiant energy from the Sun reaches the Earth. What happens to all that energy? Where does it go?

A

30% is reflected by clouds on the Earth’s surface.
45% heats the atomosphere and maintains Earth’s temperature.
23% heats water and drives the water cycle.
1% genereates wind patterns.
1-2% is used by photosynthesis to produce food energy.

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18
Q

What is albedo?

A

Refers to the amount of energy that is REFLECTED from a sufrace.
Earth’s albedo varies from place to place (the average is around 30%)
Low albedo means high absorption of energy

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19
Q

Earth is a closed system. What does this mean? (3 points)

A
  • No matter enters or leaves the biosphere
  • Matter cycles; materials are recycled
  • Energy flows; the Sun follows a one-way path through the biosphere
    Ex: Sun -> plant -> animal -> motion/heat
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20
Q

Energy enters in two ways. What are they?

A
  • Photosynthetic producers
  • Chemosynthetic producers
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21
Q

What are photosynthetic producers?

A
  • Capture the Sun’s energy and converts it into chemical energy (glucose). Use compounds like chlorophyll to convert sunlight into usable energy (sugar)
  • Provides most of the energy and organic materials to an ecosystem.
  • Photoautotrophs

(6H2O + 6CO2 + sun -> C6H12O6 + 6O2)

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22
Q

What are chemosynthetic producers?

A
  • Capture the energy stored in chemical bonds and convert it to chemical energy (glucose).
  • Non-photosynthetic organisms convert chemical compounds like sulfur, iron, ammonia, or H2S into energetic compounds
  • Chemoautotrophs (often bacteria)

Ex: deep sea ocean vents (recent discovery)
(no need to memorize any formulas, but recognize them)

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23
Q

What do photosynthesis and chemosynthesis have in common?

A

It’s because we can’t use inorganic compounds directly. Both require and input of energy and are endothermic.

24
Q

What is defined as an organic substance?

A
  • Of hydrocarbons
  • Bonds of C, H, and sometimes O
25
Q

What are the three classifications of organisms in the biosphere?

A
  • Producers
  • Consumers
  • Decomposers
26
Q

What are producers? What is their other name? What are the two types?

A

Make their own food. Also known as autotrophs.
1. Photosynthetic producers (photoautotrophs) use solar energy to convert carbon into carbohydrates, like plants
2. Chemosynthetic producers (chemoautotrophs) can use energy in inorganic compounds to store energy in organic molecules without sunlight, like bacteria that use H2S near deep sea vents to make carbohydrates and H2SO4. Soil bacteria can use ammonium.

27
Q

What are consumers? What is their other name? What are the three categories of consumers?

A

Must consume other organisms for energy. Also known as heterotrophs.
1. Primary consumers: first degree, herbivores as they eat producers.
2. Secondary consumers: second degree, carnivores as they eat herbivores.
3. Tertiary consumers: third degree, carnivores, as they eat other consumers. “Top of the food chain”, such as a lion.

(some can eat more than one order of consumer, while others can also be herbivores)

28
Q

What is a decomposer?

A

Obtain energy by breaking down dead organisms (they eat anything) and waste into simpler substances. Return organic/inorganic matter to the soil, air/water to be used again by producers.

Examples include bacteria, worms, and flies.

29
Q

What are trophic levels? What is the maximum trophic levels for Bio 20?

A

To describe the feeding relationship. Feeding levels through which energy and matter is transferred in a food chain.

Maximum: 6

(some animals can be in more than one, like bears feed on berries, fishes, and elk).

Generally, we refer to an organism by its highest trophic level.

30
Q

What would the first trophic level be like?

A

Producers, like algae.

31
Q

What would the second trophic level be like?

A

Primary consumers, herbivores, like plankton.

32
Q

What would the third trophic level be like?

A

Secondary consumers, carnivores, like shrimp.

33
Q

What would the fourth, fifith, and sixth trophic levels be like?

A

Tertirary/quartenary/top consumer

34
Q

Why are decomposers kept to the side in food chains and food webs?

A

They decompose and are good with everythiong.

35
Q

What is a food chain?

A

Shows the linear pathway through which food is transferred, from producers to primary consumers and to progressively higher feeding levels.

36
Q

What is a food web? What do they show?

A

Interlocking food chains that illustrate more complex feeding (multiple) relationships between organisms. Any particualr route through the web is a food chain.

The flow of energy and nutrients in an ecosystem. Matter can’t be lost but energy is “lost” (as waste) in the transformation process.

37
Q

What do arrows show in a food chain/web?

A

The flow of energy.

38
Q

What happens as a result of the loss of energy in a food web?

A

Limits the number of trophic levels that a food web can contain to no more than six. Rest is waste.

39
Q

In all food chains/food webs, the amount of available energy decreases as you move up the chain. Where does this energy go?

A
  1. Most of energy produced by autotrophs is used to promote the survival and growth of the organism itself.
  2. Consumers don’t process all the food they eat. Some is eliminated through waste, or feces.
  3. Some of the energy taken in by a consumer is required to acquire, digest, and metabolize the food eaten.
  4. Must of the energy metabolized is also lost as heat.

Water and matter can be recycled, but energy is lost.

Mostly metabolism and decomposition (at least according to a practice question).

40
Q

What is primary productivity?

A

The amount of light energy converted to chemical energy by autotrophs in an ecosystem.

Primary = Lost + Net

41
Q

What is net productivity? What ecosystem has the lowest?

A
  • Amount of chemical energy stored in the organic mass of all the autotrophs in an ecosystem.
  • Determined by subtracting the energy lost from the primary productivity.

Net = Primary - Lost

Deserts.

42
Q

What does efficiency tell us and what is its formula?

A

A measure of the ecosystem.

(Useful output (stored in tissues) / total energy input) x 100%

43
Q

How does efficiency vary?

A

Varies from one ecosystem to another and from one trophic level to another.

44
Q

How much can efficiency vary, since only part of the avaliable energy from one trophic level can be transferred to the next? What is the general rule?

A

5 to 20%.

We generally assume that 10% of the energy avaliable at a particular trophic level is transferred to the next, and this is called the Rule of 10.

45
Q

What are ecological pyramids?

A

Describe quantitative relationships between trophic levels in a variety of ways.
These models help ecologists depict visual patterns, visualize the relationships in an ecocystem and compare different ecosystems.

46
Q

What is a pyramid of numbers?

A
  • Based on # of organisms per trophic level
  • Usually as trophic level gets higher, # of organisms decreases
  • Because avaliable energy decreases at each successive trophic level, and fewer animals can be supported

(Rule of 10)

47
Q

What is an inverted pyramid of numbers?

A
  • As trophic level increases, the number of organisms increases.
  • Usually when producers are very large
  • Consumers are very small (there is more biomass at lower than at higher)
  • Small # of large support large # of small

Ex: Gigantic trees at bottom support lots of herbivore insects.

48
Q

What is biomass?

A

Total dry mass of living matter in an ecosystem (dehydrate them). Indicator of stored energy.

49
Q

What is a pyramid of biomass?

A

Biomass of organisms per trophic level. Better for food webs, since as trophic level increases, biomass decreases (there is less avaliable energy).

Biomass is an indicator of stored energy, and each level of pyramid shows the g/m^2 of each organism.

50
Q

What is an inverted pyramid of biomass?

A

Inverted is as trophic level increases, biomass increases.
- Some aquatic ecosystems! Biomass of zooplankton (2nd level) > phytoplankton (1st level) in biomass
- Happens as phytoplankton is eaten as fast as it reproduces so ecosystem will not collapse

rapidly producing autotrophs

51
Q

What is a pyramid of energy?

A
  • Total amount of energy per trophic level, depicting the transfer of energy (J or kJ), usally 10% (can be 5-20%).
  • Inverted pyramids of energy are impossible (they’ll always be upright) (2nd law of thermodynamics), since as trophic level increases, energy decreases. This is why food chains are maximum of 6.

In all ecosystems, less energy at higher trophic levels than at lower levels.

This pyramid overcomes the limitations of the inverted, which is less organized.

52
Q

What are the two key ways humans interfere with the ecosystem?

A
  • Monoculture
  • Pesticides -> biological amplification/magnification
53
Q

How does climate change affect ecosystems?

A

Affects distributions, and there may be less/fewer producers at the bottom dead = fragile ecosystems.

54
Q

What is a monoculture? What is the problem with this?

A

Ecosystems are usually diverse = stability.

Agriculture…plant one type of plants.
- Eliminates food source, destroys other plants, some soils need variety of plants to maintain nutrient levels.

55
Q

What is the consequence of pesticides?

A

Leads to biological magnification and accumulation.

56
Q

What is biological amplification/magnification?

A
  • Refers to the buildup of harmful toxins in organisms as chemicals are transferred up through the ecological pyramid.
  • This increasing concetration as you go up the food chain occurs because these chemicals are non bio-degradable; they’re stored in fatty tissue and cannot be easily excreted.

Ex: heavy metals (lead, mercury), organchlorine compounds (DDT, PCB, dioxins), radioactive materials

Amplifies = death: they eat many of the small creatures.

57
Q

Energy is/isn’t be cycled. Matter is/isn’t be cycled.

A

Energy isn’t, matter is.

Biology 20 AP (14 decks)

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