Chapter 55 Vocabulary Flashcards
Law of conservation of mass
Matter, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed
Ecosystem
The sum of all the organisms in a given area and the abiotic factors with which they interact
Primary producers
The trophic level that ultimately supports all others consists of the autotrophs
Primary consumers
Herbivores, which war plants and other primary producers
Secondary consumers
Carnivores that eat herbivores
Tertiary consumers
Carnivores that eat other carnivores and herbivores. Called omnivores too
Detritivores
A group of heterotrophs also known as decomposers, get their nutrients from detritus
Decomposes
Get their energy from detritus
Detritus
Nonliving organic material, such as the remains of dead organisms, feces, fallen leaves, and wood
Primary production
In most ecosystems, the amount of light energy converted to chemical energy-in the form of organic compounds - by autotrophs during a given time period
1 Joule
0.293cal
Gross primary productions (GPP)
The amount of energy from light (or chemicals, in chemoautotrophic systems) converted to chemical energy of organic molecules per unit time
Net primary production (NPP)
Equal to gross primary production minus the energy used by the primary producers for their “autotrophic respiration”
Standing crop
Total biomass of photosynthetic autotrophs present
Net ecosystem production (NEP)
A measure of total biomass accumulation during a given period of time
Limiting nutrient
The element that must be added for production to increase
Eutrophication
Adding nutrients, ultimately reducing oxygen concentration and clarity of the water
Actual evapotranspiration
The total amount of water transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape. Increases with temperature and amount of solar energy available to drive evaporation and transpiration
Secondary production
The amount of chemical energy in consumers’ food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given period
Production efficiency
The percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is not used for respiration
net secondary production x 100% / assimilation of primary production
Trophic efficiency
Percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next
Pyramid of net production
Representation of the loss of energy with each transfer in a food chain
Biomass pyramid
Pyramid in which each tier represents the standing crop (the total dry mass of all organisms) in one trophic level
Turnover time
The time required to replace the standing crop of a population or group of populations (for example, of phytoplankton), calculated as the ratio of standing crop to production
