Chapter 3 Flashcards
Whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
Atmosphere
Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains 75% of the mass of earth’s air and extends about 17 kilometers (11 miles) above sea level. Where weather happens
Troposphere
Gases in the earth’s lower atmosphere (troposphere) that cause the greenhouse effect. Examples include carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide
Greenhouse Gases
Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48 kilometers (11-30 miles) above the earth’s surface. it contains small amounts of gaseous ozone which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun.
Stratosphere
Earth’s liquid water, frozen water, and water vapor in the atmosphere.
Hydrosphere
Earth’s intensely hot core, which mantle composed mostly of rock, and thin outer crust that contains most of the earth’s rock, soil, and sediment.
Geosphere
Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, an lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments on the bottoms of oceans and other bodies of water) where life is found.
Biosphere
Natural effect that releases heat in the atmosphere near the earth’s surface. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and other gases in the lower atmosphere absorb some of the infrared radiation radiated by the earth’s surface. Their molecules vibrate and transform the absorbed energy into longer-wavelength infrared radiation in the atmosphere. If the atmospheric concentrations of these greenhouse gases increase and other natural processes do not remove them, the average temperature of the lower atmosphere will increase
Natural Greenhouse Effect
Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.
Ecology
Any form of life
Organisms
Group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area
Populations
Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time
Communities
One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment
Ecosystems
All organisms that are the same number of energy transfers away from the original source of energy that enters an ecosystem.
Trophic Level
Organism that uses solar energy or chemical energy to manufacture the organic compounds it needs as nutrients from simple inorganic compounds obtained from its environment
Producers
Complex process that takes place in cells of green plants. Radiant energy from the sun is used to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen, carbohydrates, and other nutrient molecules
Photosynthesis
Process in which certain organisms extract inorganic compounds from their environment and convert them into organic nutrient compounds without the presence of sunlight
Chemosynthesis
Organism that cannot synthesize the organic nutrients it needs and gets its organic nutrients by feeding on the tissues of producers or of other consumers.
Consumers
Organism that feeds on some or all parts of plants or on other producers
Primary Consumers
Organism that feeds only on primary consumers
Secondary Consumers
Animals that feed on animal-eating animals. They feed at high trophic levels in food chains and webs.
Tertiary Consumers
Organism that digests parts of dead organisms, and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms by breaking down the complex organic molecules in those materials into simpler inorganic compounds and then absorbing the soluble nutrients. Producers return most of these chemicals to the soil and water for reuse.
Decomposers
Consumer organism that feeds on detritus, parts of dead organisms, and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms.
Detritivores
Complex process that occurs in the cells of most living organisms, in which nutrient organic molecules such as glucose combine with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and energy
Aerobic Respiration
Form of cellular respiration in which some decomposers get the energy they need through the breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen.
Anaerobic Respiration
Series of organisms in which each eats or decomposes the preceding one.
Food Chain
Complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships.
Food Web
Organic matter produced by plants and other photosynthetic producers; total dry weight of all living organisms that can be supported at each trophic level in a food chain or web; dry weight of all organic matter in plants and animals in an ecosystem; plant materials and animal wastes used as fuel.
Biomass
Diagram representing the flow of energy through each trophic level in a food chain or food web. With each energy transfer, only a small part (10%) of the usable energy entering one trophic level is transferred to the organisms at the next trophic level.
Pyramid of Energy Flow
Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time.
Gross Primary Productivity
Rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy; equal to the difference between the rate at which the plants in an ecosystem produce useful chemical energy and the rate at which they use some of that energy through cellular respiration
Net Primary Productivity
Natural processes that recycle nutrients in various chemical forms from the nonliving environment to living organisms and then back to the nonliving environment.
Biogeochemical Cycles
Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water from the environment to living organisms and then back to the environment
Hydrologic Cycle
Cyclic movement of carbon in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment
Carbon Cycle
Cyclic movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment
Nitrogen Cycle
Cyclic movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment
Phosphorus Cycle
Cyclic movement of sulfur in various chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment
Sulfur Cycle
Alteration of the Hydrologic cycle by humans
- Withdrawal of large amounts of freshwater at rates faster than nature can replace it
- Clearing vegetation
- Increased flooding when wetlands are drained
Additional CO2 added to the atmosphere
- tree clearing
- Burning of fossil fuels
- Warms the atmosphere
Human intervention in the nitrogen cycle
- Additional NO and N2O in atmosphere from burning fossil fuels; also causes acid rain
- N2O to atmosphere from bacteria acting on fertilizers and manure
- destruction of forest, grasslands, and wetlands
- add excess nitrates to bodies of water
- Remove nitrogen from topsoil
Impact of human activities for phosphorus
- clearing forests
- removing large amounts of phosphate from the earth to make fertilizers
- erosion leaches phosphates into streams
Human activities affect the sulfur cycle
- burn sulfur-containing coal and oil
- refine sulfur-containing petroleum
- convert sulfur-containing metallic mineral ores
