Chapter 54- Ecosystems

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

The species present, along with abiotic components such as the soil, climate, water, and atmosphere.

Question 2

Primary Producer/Autotroph

Answer 2

An organism that can synthesize its own food from inorganic sources.

Question 3

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

Answer 3

Energy that is invested in new tissue or offspring.

Question 4

Biomass

Answer 4

Organic material that non-photosynthetic organisms can eat.

Question 5

Consumers

Answer 5

Eat living organisms.

Question 6

Primary Consumers

Answer 6

Eat primary producers

Question 7

Secondary Consumers

Answer 7

Eat primary consumers

Question 8

Tertiary Consumers

Answer 8

Eat secondary consumers.

Question 9

Decomposers/Detritivores

Answer 9

Obtain energy by feeding on detritus, the remains or waste products of other organisms.

Question 10

Detritus

Answer 10

The collective term for dead animals and dead plant tissues.

Question 11

Gross Primary Productivity

Answer 11

The total amount of photosynthesis in a given area and time period.

Question 12

Gross Photosynthetic Efficiency

Answer 12

The ratio of gross primary productivity to the total incoming solar radiation.

Question 13

Trophic Level

Answer 13

Occupied by organisms that obtain their energy from the same type of source.

Question 14

Food Chain

Answer 14

Connects the trophic levels in a particular ecosystem.

Question 15

Decomposer Food Chain

Answer 15

A food chain were decomposers are at the second trophic level.

Question 16

Primary Decomposers

Answer 16

Decomposers which feed on plant detritus.

Question 17

Grazing Food Chain

Answer 17

Primary consumers are at the second trophic level.

Question 18

Food Web

Answer 18

A complex group of connected food chains. A compact way of summarizing movement of energy in an ecosystem.

Question 19

Top-Down Control

Answer 19

When a consumer limits a prey population.

Question 20

Trophic Cascade

Answer 20

When changes in top-down control cause conspicuous effects two or three links away in a food web.

Question 21

Biomagnification

Answer 21

The increase in a molecule’s concentration higher in a food chain.

Question 22

Biochemical cycle

Answer 22

The path that an element takes as it moves from abiotic systems through producers, consumers, decomposers, and back again.

Question 23

Soil Organic Matter

Answer 23

A complex mixture of partially and completely decomposed detritus.

Question 24

Humus

Answer 24

Completely decayed organic matter.

Question 25

Watersheds

Answer 25

areas drained by a single stream.

Question 26

Groundwater

Answer 26

Water that is found in soil.

Question 27

Global Carbon Cycle

Answer 27

Documents the movement of carbon among terrestrial ecosystems, the oceans, and the atmosphere.

Question 28

Greenhouse Gas

Answer 28

Gas that traps heat that has been radiated from Earth and keeps it from being lost to space.

Question 29

Phenology

Answer 29

The timing of seasonal events.