Chapter 4 Flashcards
1
Q
What are the two components of the ecosystem?
A
Abiotic and biotic
2
Q
What are interacting organisms referred to as?
A
Communities
3
Q
What does autotroph mean
A
Self Feeding
4
Q
What do autotrophs eat
A
Inorganic carbon sources like CO2
5
Q
What is another name for autotrophs
A
Primary producers
6
Q
What is required for autotrophs to fix carbon
A
External energy
7
Q
What does heterotroph mean
A
Other feeding
8
Q
What do heterotrophs eat
A
Organic carbon sources (other organisms)
9
Q
What is another name for heterotrophs
A
Secondary producers
10
Q
What are the two types of secondary producers
A
Consumers and decomposers
11
Q
What do detritus feed on
A
Organic and inorganic material in the water and soil
12
Q
4 points on photosynthesis
A
- essential for life on earth
- every organism relies on this
- suns energy fuels chemical reactions
- CO2 is transformed into simple sugars
13
Q
What is decomposition
A
The breakdown of chemical bonds to release energy and convert organic matter to inorganic matter
14
Q
What are the two types of decomposers
A
Microflora and detritovores
15
Q
What organisms are microflora
A
Bacteria and fungi
16
Q
How do microflora digest complex organic molecules
A
By secreting enzymes
17
Q
Microflora work in…
A
succession to fully decompose matter
18
Q
What are detritovores responsible for
A
Fragmentation of organic material like small animals
19
Q
What are the three stages of decomposition
A
Leaching, fragmentation, mineralization
20
Q
What is leaching
A
Removal of soluble sugars
21
Q
What is fragmentation
A
Mechanical of chemical breaking apart
22
Q
What is mineralization
A
When inorganic nutrients are released from the organic material
23
Q
What decomposers live on plants
A
Microflora
24
Q
What do plant microflora feed on
A
Exudates (any fluid released from the plant)
25
How do plants feed decomposers
By secreting fluids, sloughing cellular material, and growing old
26
What are the first class of decomposers in animals
Scavangers: eagles, vultures, ravens
27
What is the second class of decomposers in animals
Anthropods
28
What is the third class of decomposers in animals
Bacteria
29
What influences the decomposition rate
Litter quality
30
What affects litter quality
Carbon quantity and chemical bonds
31
What is good quality litter
Contains glucose and small, high energy bonds
32
What is fair quality litter
Contains cellulose and has a complex structure
33
What is poor quality litter
Contains lignin and complex, folded molecules
34
How does physical environment affect decomposition
Higher temperatures create a higher decomposition rate
35
What is AET
Actual Evapotranspiration: the evaporation and transpiration
36
What happens to dead organic matter in aquatic habitats
Drifts to the bottom where it is ingested, digested, and mineralized by bacteria in the benthic layer (anaerobic)
37
What are bacteria considered in aquatic ecosystems
Converters
38
What eats bacteria in aquatic ecosystems
Zooplankton
39
How is aquatic organic matter decomposed
By bacteria which consume the cellular breakdown and exudates of plankton and convert it to biomass
40
What is energy
The ability to do work
41
What is potential energy
Energy that is available for work
42
What is kinetic energy
Energy in motion
43
Energy is measured in what?
Calories
44
What is the first law of thermodynamics
Energy is not created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed
45
What is it called when energy is unable to do work
Entropy
46
What is the second law of thermodynamics
Energy can become unable to do work due to transfer or transformation (only in a closed system)
47
What kind of system is the earth
An open system
48
What is the ultimate source of energy in ecosystems
The sun (PAR)
49
What do autotrophs do with the sun
Convert CO2 to simple sugars
50
What is energy flow in ecosystems a result of
Chemical bonds of organic carbon-based compounds
51
What is GPP (Gross Primary Production)
Energy assimilated by the plant
52
What is NPP (Net Primary Productivity)
Energy remaining after respiration
53
What do NPP and GPP together measure
Productivity
54
What is stored from the sun in photosynthesis
Energy
55
What is standing crop biomass
The accumulate plant biomass after respiration
56
What is not included in standing crop biomass
Material that dies or is consumed by herbivores
57
What can cause high biomass
Old plants
58
What is biomass influenced by
Longevity of plants
59
Does high biomass equal high productivity
No
60
What is an example of a productive organism with a low standing crop biomass
Phytoplankton
61
What influences primary production
Water, temperature, growing season, and AET
62
How does water influence primary productivity
Moisture influences the rate of transpiration
63
How does temperature influence primary productivity
lower temperatures result in a lower metabolic rate (or high and high)
64
How does AET influence primary productivity
There needs to be enough water and a high enough temperature to move water
65
Is primary productivity highly or lowly variable
Highly
66
Example of high productivity ecosystems considering primary productivity
Ocean coastlines, tropical upwellings, rain forest
67
Example of low productivity ecosystems considering primary productivity
Tundras, deserts
68
What are some temporal variations considering primary productivity
stand age, annual variation (less water, more herbivores)
69
Three key points of stand age (temporal variation)
leaf area is maximum
no longer enough water or nutrients to keep growing
trees keep adding biomass
70
What is NPP used for
growth and storage
71
Patterns of primary productivity in annuals
NPP dedicated to above ground growth
Flowers (reproduction)
Seeds (overwinter survival)
72
Patterns of primary productivity in perennials
NPP dedicated to above ground growth
Flowers (fewer than annuals)
Mostly roots, some seeds (overwinter survival)
73
Patterns of primary productivity in woody plants
```
Leaves
Flowers
Fruit (reproduction)
Cambium (growing big and tall)
Buds
Roots (overwinter survival)
```
74
What does a high root to shoot ratio suggest
The plant is a good compeditor for water and nutrients (desert, tundra)
75
What does a low root to shoot ration suggest
The plant has high productivity (forest)
76
Theoretically, what is available to all herbivores/decomposers
NPP
77
Is NPP always available
Some NPP is physically unavailable
78
What is not available to decomposers
Living tissue
79
How is energy consumed in organisms
Passed in urine/feces
Lost as heat
remainder used for maintenance, growth, storage, and reproduction
80
What does secondary production equation look like
Sec. Production = Econsumed - Erespiration - Ewastes
81
What is encompassed in secondary productivity
Growth, storage, reproduction
82
What is assimilation efficiency
the ratio of energy assimilated to energy ingested
83
What does the assimilation efficiency depend on
food quality and the efficiency of digestion
84
What is production efficiency
the ratio of secondary production to energy assimilated
85
What does production efficiency depend on
Respiration rate
86
What is the rough distribution of energy in homeotherms
98% to metabolism
| 70% to assimilation energy
87
What is the rough distribution of energy in poikilotherms
66% to metabolism
| 42% to assimilation energy
88
What are the three levels of producers
primary producers, herbivores, and carnivores
89
What are the four kinds of herbivores
grazers
browsers
granivores
frugivores
90
What do grazers consume
leaf materials
91
What do browsers consume
woody materials
92
What do granivores consume
seeds
93
What do frugivores consume
fruit
94
What do grazers and browsers consume a lot of
cellulose and lignin
95
How do browsers and grazers consume food
With gut bactera and protozoa
96
How do rabbits and hares digest cellulose and lignin
By coprophagy (shit eaters)
97
How do horses digest cellulose and lignin
hind gut fermenters
98
What do first order carnivores consume
herbivores
99
What do second order carnivores consume
first order carnivores
100
Do omnivores feed at one tropic level
No, many
101
What are most omnivores
invertebrates
102
What are the three major components to a grazing food chain
Primary producers
Herbivores
Carnivores
103
What are the three major components to a detrital food chain
Detritus
Decomposer herbivores
Carnivores
104
What are the two types of food chains
Grazing and detrital
105
Which food chain is the major path for energy flow
Detrital
106
What does the grazing food chain provide
Input for detrital food chain
107
How are the two food chain connected
Through predation
108
What are food webs
A series of interconnected food chains
109
How does energy flow through individuals and populations
By being ingested , assimilated (respiration, growth,reproduction), or by being turned into waste
110
What are growth and reproduction equivalent to in populations
Standing crop biomass and population size
111
What is the general trend of ecological pyramids
Fewer individuals the higher the trophic level
112
What does the pyramid of numbers not show
Biomass (elephant=mouse)
113
What does a pyramid of biomass show
Weight of living material at any one time
114
What is different about pyramids of biomass in aquatic systems and what organism is responsible for the change
It's inverted
| Phytoplankton
115
What does a pyramid of energy show
Energy fixed and stored at each level
116
What are the four main problems with using pyramids of energy
Do not describe detritle chain
Consumers don't always occupy only one trophic level
Not all energy is able to be transferred
Suggests that energy does not cycle
117
What is the general cycle of a biochemical cycle
soil/sediment - plant tissues - animal tissue - released by mineralization
118
What is the major element in energy fixation
Carbon
119
Where does all fixed C come from
Atmospheric CO2
120
What is the carbon cycle the process of
photosynthesis and energy flow
121
Describe the movement of carbon in the carbon cycle
CO2 assimilated by plants, becomes glucose
Synthesis and storage of polysaccharides, protein, ad fat
Ingested by herbivores,synthesized
Re digested and re synthesized by carnivores
Decomposers release C stored
122
How do all organisms recycle CO2
By respiration
123
What happens to CO2 in an aquatic system
It diffuses into the upper layers of the ecosystem
| Once dissolved it is used by phytoplankton to make energy rich carbon compounds to pass through aquatic food chain
124
CO2 in <4.3 pH is
Dissolved CO2
125
CO2 in 4.3-8.3 pH is
Bicarbonate
126
CO2 in >8.3 pH is
Carbonate
127
Why does CO2 concentration vary daily
Driven by photosynthesis, decline at dawn, increase at dusk
| Lowest in canopy, highest at forest floor
128
Why does CO2 concentration vary seasonally
CO2 highest in summer, increased heat
129
Why does CO2 concentration vary annually
Will vary due to extreme seasonal changes (winter, summer)
| Influenced by storage in plants
130
What does the global cycle mainly consist of
Sedimentary rock, not cycling
131
Where is most cycling C found
In the ocean
132
Where is little cycling C found
In the atmosphere
133
Three points about the nitrogen cycle
Essential component of protein
Most of atm as N2
Unusable: must be converted
134
What are the two methods of nitrogen fixation
High Energy fixation and biological fixation
135
Describe high energy fixation
Caused by lightning and cosmic radiation
| Forms nitrate
136
Describe biological fixation
Turns N2 into 2N, energy expensive, forms ammonia
137
What organisms perform biological fixation
mutualistic bacteria, free living bacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi
138
Who utilizes ammonia
Plants
139
Describe the flow of nitrogen in the nitrogen cycle
Some unusable N2 is mineralized into ammonia, which is absorbed by plants or enters water/soil
Some undergoes nitrification, which is used by other bacteria and plants
These can undergo denitrification, and become converted to gaseous N by bacteria and fungi, which are facultative anaerobes, and N2 is lost to the atmosphere
140
What are some human impacts of the nitrogen cycle
Keep removing N content from soil (leaching, removing plants)
Polluting which adds No2, increasing canopy growth and stem growth so trees don't prepare for winter
Decreasing root growth
141
Key points of the phosphorus cycle
Small amount P in atm
Usually the limiting factor
Mostly in rock
Released by weathering, erosion, weathering
Used by plants (passed through food chain)
Bacteria makes it inorganic
142
What happens to the phosphorus cycle in an aquatic environment
It is recycled rapidly and deposited in sediment
| Seasonal upwellings make it available for phytoplankton
143
Key points of sulphur cycle
```
Has a long term sedimentary phase
Most enters cycle as hydrogen sulfide
Oxodizes to sulfur dioxide
Goes to earth in rainwater (sulfuric acid)
Plants take up sulphur
Recycled by decomposers
```
144
What have humans done with acid deposition and how does it affect the ecosystem
```
Increased SO2 and NO2, creating dilute solutions of strong acids
Causes acid rain, snow, and fog
Harms fish, releases aluminum ions
halt aquatic nutrient cycles
reduces aquatic bacteria activity levels
leach cations from leaves
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