cHAPTER 55

Question 1

ECOSYSTEM

Answer 1

sum of all organisms living in a given area and the abiotcic factors with which they itneract

Question 2

primary producers

Answer 2

trophic level that supports all others consists of autotrophs, use light energy

Question 3

primary consumers

Answer 3

eat primary producers

Question 4

secondary consumers

Answer 4

carnivores that eat herbivores

Question 5

tertiary consumers

Answer 5

carnivores that eat other carnivores

Question 6

detritivores/decomposers

Answer 6

group of heterotrophs, get energy from nonliving organic material

Question 7

primary production

Answer 7

the amount of light energy converted to chemical energy by autotrophs in a given time

Question 8

Conservation of mass and energy

Answer 8

govern energy flow and chemical cycling in ecosystems, organisms will cycle energy from the sun

Question 9

gross primary production (GPP)

Answer 9

amount of energy from light converted to the chemical energy of organic molecules per unit of time. not all of this is stored as organic material

Question 10

Net primary production (NPP)

Answer 10

equal to GPP minus the energy used by the primary producers for cellular respiration. On average it is about one half of GPP

Question 11

Net ecosystem Production (NEP)

Answer 11

measure of the total biomass accumulation during that time. defined as gross primary production minus the total respiration of all organisms in the system

Question 12

limiting nutrient

Answer 12

the element that must be added for production to increase in an ecosystem.

Question 13

common limiting nutrients

Answer 13

phosphorus and nitrogen

Question 14

evapotranspiration

Answer 14

the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants.

Question 15

evapotranspiration effect on biomes

Answer 15

the temperature and moisture can affect the primary production of an ecosystem, net primary production (NPP) increases with evapotranspiration

Question 16

secondary production

Answer 16

amount of chemical energy in consumers’ food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given period

Question 17

production efficiency

Answer 17

the percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is used for growth and reproduction, not respiration (Production Efficiency=net secondary production/assimilation of primary production *100)

Question 18

Trophic efficiency

Answer 18

percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next. must always be less than production efficiencies

Question 19

10% rules for food chain

Answer 19

only around 10% of energy is received from organisms taking in energy. primary producers convert only about 1% of the energy available to them to net primary production. only about 0.1% of the chemical energy fixed by photosynthesis can flow all the way to a tertiary consumers,

Question 20

biogeochemical cyclees

Answer 20

nutrient cycles that involve both biotic and abiotic components, consists of the flow of elements into different ecosystems

Question 21

reservoirs

Answer 21

vital ecosystem elements are typically found in large resevoirs in ecosystems

Question 22

four factors to focus on for biogeochemical cycles

Answer 22

each chemical’s biological importance, forms in which each element is available or used by organisms, major reservoirs for each chemical, key processes driving movement of each chemical through its cycle

Question 23

decomp rates

Answer 23

rapid decomposition means low soil nutrient levels, decomp increases with temperature

Question 24

biomagnification

Answer 24

the concentration of toxins in an organism as a result of its ingesting other plants or animals in which the toxins are more widely disbursed.

Question 25

bioaccumulation

Answer 25

the build-up of something inside an organism