Ch. 3

Question 1

Acid deposition

Answer 1

Also called acid rain

Question 2

Ammonification

Answer 2

Decomposer bacteria convert organic material into ammonia and ammonium ions

Question 3

Aquifer

Answer 3

Groundwater storage areas

Question 4

Baseline data

Answer 4

Current conditions

Question 5

Bedrock

Answer 5

Below C horizon, unweathered parent material

Question 6

Clay

Answer 6

Very small soil particles

Question 7

Core

Answer 7

Very hot

Question 8

Crust

Answer 8

Thin, outer section that is in lithosphere and biosphere

Question 9

Denitrification

Answer 9

Nitrogen leaves soil as bacteria in waterlogged soil and in bottom sediment of lakes, oceans, swamps, and bogs convert NHx back into Nitrate/Nitrite and then into nitrogen gas.

Question 10

Decomposers

Answer 10

Recycle nutrients in ecosystems by releasing enzymes that degrade dead organisms into simpler inorganic compounds that can be used by producers

Question 11

Detritivores

Answer 11

Insects and scavengers that feed on the wastes or dead bodies of other organisms

Question 12

Distribution/range

Answer 12

Area where we can find a species

Question 13

Gaia hypothesis

Answer 13

Life controls the earth’s processes or that life influences the earth’s life sustaining processes

Question 14

Gross primary productivity

Answer 14

Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass

Question 15

Humus

Answer 15

Partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and animals and inorganic materials like clay silt and sand.

Question 16

B horizon

Answer 16

Subsoil, mostly inorganic matter and broken down rock.

Question 17

O horizon

Answer 17

Freshly fallen undecomposed or partially decomposed leaves twigs crop wasted animal waste fungi and other organic material.

Question 18

Systems analysis

Answer 18

Systems measurement to data analysis to system modeling to system modeling to system optimization

Question 19

Hydrothermal vents

Answer 19

Where bacteria survive through chemosynthesis from hydrogen sulfide

Question 20

Leaching

Answer 20

As water seeps down, it dissolves stuff and carries it down to lower layers

Question 21

Limiting factor principle

Answer 21

Too much or too little of any factor can limit or prevent growth of a population

Question 22

Net primary productivity

Answer 22

Rate at which producers use photosynthesis minus rate at which they use it for aerobic respiration NPP = GPP - R

Question 23

Nitrification

Answer 23

Soil bacteria convert Ammonia into nitrite then nitrate, which is easily taken up by plants

Question 24

Nitrogen fixation

Answer 24

Nitrogen gas is fixed to ammonia

Question 25

C horizon

Answer 25

Parent material that contains bedrock

Question 26

Permafrost

Answer 26

Frozen soil layers

Question 27

Sand

Answer 27

Large soil particles

Question 28

Silt

Answer 28

Medium soil particles

Question 29

A horizon

Answer 29

Topsoil, porous mixture of partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and inorganic material like clay silt and sand

Question 30

weathering

Answer 30

Breaking down of bedrock into rock fragments and particles

Question 31

4 components of Biodiversity

Answer 31

Functional Genetic Ecological and Species