Chapter 2 - Energy flow and nutrient cycles support life in ecosystems Flashcards
(2.1) What is biomass?
the total mass of living plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria in a given area. Can also refer to the mass of particular types of organic matter such as trees, plant crops, manures, and other organic materials that may be used to manufacture biofuels such as biogas.
(2.1) What is energy flow? How does it work?
the flow of energy from an ecosystem to an organism and from one organism to another.
(1) the organism obtains food energy from the ecosystem
(2) the organism contributes energy to the organism
(2.1) What are producers?
organisms that produce food in the form of carbohydrates during photosynthesis.
ex. plants
(2.1) What are consumers?
organisms that eat other organisms
ex. a bee feeding on a sunflower
(2.1) What is decomposition?
the breaking down of organic wastes and dead organisms.
(2.1) What is biodegradation?
living organisms such as bacteria breaking down dead organic matter.
(2.1) What are decomposers?
organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and change them into usable nutrients available to other organisms in soil and water.
ex. fungi and bacteria
(2.1) What are food chains?
models that show the flow of energy from plant to animal and from animal to animal.
(2.1) What are trophic levels?
steps in a food chain. they show the feeding and niche relationships among organisms.
ex. (1) primary producers
(2) primary consumers
(3) secondary consumers
(4) tertiary consumers
(2.1) What are primary producers?
organisms in the first trophic level. They are the producers.
ex. plants and algae
(2.1) What are primary consumers?
second trophic level. feed on primary producers to obtain energy.
ex. herbivores: grasshoppers
(2.1) What are secondary consumers?
third trophic level. feed on primary consumers to obtain energy.
ex. carnivores: frogs and crabs
(2.1) What are tertiary consumers?
fourth trophic level. feed on secondary consumers to obtain energy.
ex. top carnivores: hawks and sea otters
(2.1) What are detrivores?
consumers that feed at every trophic level, obtaining their energy and nutrients by eating dead organic matter.
ex. earthworms and beetles
(2.1) What are herbivores?
primary consumers that eat plants.
(2.1) What are carnivores?
secondary consumers that eat primary consumers plans often other secondary consumers. They are often at the tertiary level of a food chain; also known as top carnivores.
(2.1) What are omnivores?
consumers that eat both plants and animals.
(2.1) What are food webs?
models of the feeding relationships within an ecosystem; formed from interconnected food chains.
(2.1) What are food pyramids?
a model that shows the loss of energy from one trophic level to another; often called an ecological pyramid.
(2.1) What are ecological pyramids?
food pyramids. There are three types of ecological pyramids: pyramid of biomass, pyramid of numbers, and pyramid energy.
(2.2) What are nutrients?
substances such as the chemicals nitrogen and phosphorus that are required by plants and animals for energy, growth, development, repair, or maintenance; important components of nutrient cycles in the biosphere.
(2.2) What are stores?
nutrients that are accumulated for short or long periods of time in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and land masses.
(2.2) What are nutrient cycles?
the way nutrients are cycled in the biosphere; the continuous flows (exchanges) of nutrients in and out of stores.
(2.2) What is the carbon cycle?
the nutrient cycle in which carbon is moved through the biosphere; maintains the balance of CO2 in the atmosphere.