Ch.3 Flashcards by Karla Thompson

What does the biosphere contain?

Combined portions of the planet in which all life exists

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Why do ecologists ask questions about events and organisms that range in complexity from an individual to the biosphere?

To understand relationships within the biosphere

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What is a species?

Group of organisms so similar to each other that they can breed and produce offspring

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What is a population?

Group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

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What is a community?

Different populations that live together in a defined area

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What is an ecosystem?

Collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place

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What is a biome?

Group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities

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What is the highest level of organization that ecologists study?

The biosphere

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What are the three approaches that scientists use to conduct ecological research?

Modeling,observing,and experimenting

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Why might an ecologist set up an artificial environment in a lab?

To help them understand particular environments at a reasonable scale and to help study the objects that are difficult to study due to their size

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Why are many ecological phenomenons difficult to study?

They occur over long periods of time and are on such large spatial scales

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Why do ecologists make models?

To gain insight on complex phenomena

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Can a ecological model consist of a math formula?

Yes

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What is at the core of every organisms’ interaction with the environment?

The need for energy to power life’s processes

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What source of energy do organisms use that don’t need sun?

Energy in inorganic chemical compounds

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What are autotrophs?

Plants and certain bacteria that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use energy to produce food

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Why are autotrophs also called producers?

They make their own food

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What do autotrophs do during photosynthesis?

They use light energy to power chemical reactions that produce carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy rich carbohydrates

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What is the main producer on land? Upper layers of water? Tidal flats and salt marshes?

Land-plants
Ocean-algae
Tidal/salt-photosyntheticbacteria

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What is chemosynthesis?

When organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates

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Where do bacteria that carry out chemosynthesis live?

Remote places on earth(volcanic vents on the deep ocean floor and hot springs in Yellowstone)

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What are heterotrophs called?

Consumers

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What is a plant or animal that eats remains and other dead matter collectively?

Detritivore

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What is a herbivore?

Organisms that only way plants for energy(cows,rabbits)

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What is a carnivore?

Heterotrophs that only eat other animals for energy(dogs,snakes,owls)

What is an omnivore?

Eats bother plants and animals for energy(humans,bears,crows)

What is a detritivore?

Feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter(mites,crabs,earthworms,and snails)

What are decomposes?

Break down organic matter(bacteria and fungi)

How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

In one direction,from the sun or inorganic chemicals to autotrophs and then to various heterotrophs

What is a food chain? Food web?

Chain-series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating or being eaten Web-network of complex interactions formed by relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem

What does a food web link together?

All food chains in an ecosystem

What is a trophic level?

Step in a food chain or web

In a food web,what organisms make up the first trophic level?

Producers

What does a consumer in a food chain depend on for energy?

The producers on the lower level in the food chain

What is an ecological pyramid?

Diagram that shows relative amounts of energy or matter contained with each trophic level

Why is it that only part of the energy stored in one trophic level is passed on to the next?

Organisms use much of that energy to consume

What is biomass?

The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level

What does biomass pyramid represent?

Amount of potential food available for each trophic level in an ecosystem

What does a pyramid of numbers show?

Number of organisms in each trophic level

Why can each trophic level support only about one tenth the amount of living tissue as the level below it?

Each trophic level gathers only .1 of the energy from the level below it

What are the four elements that make up the human body?(95%)

Oxygen,carbon,hydrogen,and nitrogen

What is recycled between ecosystems?

Matter

How does matter move through an ecosystem?

In biogeo chemical cycles

What are the things biogeo chemical cycles connect with?

Biological,geological,and chemical aspects of the atmosphere

How does the water enter the atmosphere?

By evaporating from leaves of plants in the process of transpiration

What are the three processes of the water cycle?

Evaporation,precipitation,run-off

What is a nutrient?

All the chemical substances that an organism requires to live

What are three nutrients that play important roles in the biosphere?

Carbon,nitrogen,phosphorus

What is the key ingredient in all living organisms?

Carbon

What are the four processes in the carbon cycle?

Biological(photosynthesis,respiration,and decomposition of plants and animals) Geo chemical(release of carbon dioxide,Co2,to the atmosphere) Mixed geo chemical(burial of carbon rich remains of organisms) Human activities(mining,cutting,and burning forest and fossil fuel)

What type of gas is found in the atmosphere?

Carbon dioxide gas

What is dissolved in the ocean?

Carbon dioxide(coal and petroleum are found underground)

What do plants use in photosynthesis?

Carbon dioxide

What do organisms require to make amino acids which are used to build protein?

Nitrogen

What is the main reservoir in the atmosphere?

Nitrogen

What is nitrogen fixation?

Process by which bacteria converts nitrogen into ammonia

What is denitrification?

Process by which some soil bacteria converts nitrates into nitrogen gas(releases nitrogen to the atmosphere)

What is phosphorus?

An element that is essential to living things because it forms part of the important life sustaining molecules such as DNA and RNA

What is the primary productivity of an ecosystem?

The rate at which organic matter is created by producers

What is a limiting nutrient?

When an ecosystem is limited by a one single nutrient

What is nitrogen often called in relation to the ocean?

Limiting factor

What does things do phosphorus limit as their limiting factor?

Lakes,streams,and freshwater

What are blooms? | Hint:growth!!!!

Growing stages that occur when there are more nutrients available for the producers. Causes them to grow and reproduce more quickly

What is ecology?

The scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environment