Ecology Flashcards
Name 7 Abiotic Factors
Air, Water, Light, Wind, Soil, Ph, Temperature
Name 5 biotic factors
Predation
Symbiosis
Disease Agents
Competition
Other organisms
Name the food chain levels
Primary Producers
Primary Consumers
Secondary Consumers
Tertiary Consumers
Quaternary Consumers (Apex Consumers)
What % of energy is transferred to the next level of consumer?
10%
What is the water cycle?
Energy from the sun causes water to evaporate and evaporation of water from the leaves of plants
Water condenses into clouds which are blown from one region to another
The clouds move and rain liquid water which is known as precipitation
The water now goes into the soil, rivers and plants
Cycle can repeat
Where’s Carbon Stored?
The Air
Plants
Soil
Fossil fuels
Animals
How does the carbon cycle occur?
Plants absorb CO2 for photosynthesis
The carbon is either passed out using respiration or its consumed by animals
Animals will also respire and send CO2 back out
When the plants and animal die, the CO2 can be decayed and broken down, they can also be decayed in anaerobic conditions where they can slowly be turned into fossil fuels
Fossil fuels will then be burned by humans again which produces CO2
What is biodiversity?
the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Ex: Rainforests have a high biodiversity
Name functions of Biodiversity
Keeping an ecosystem stable
We need animals for medicines
Factors that effect biodiversity
Population
Consumer goods
Deforestation
Pollution
Human intervention
Example of pollution in Air, Land and Water.
Water - Sewages and industries and farming chemicals pollute lakes rivers and oceans
Land - Nuclear and household waste are buried in landfills. Toxic chemicals still seep into the nearby ecosystems
Gas - Industrial processes release sulfur dioxide into the air which can harm organisms
BIotic Factor Defenition
is any living part of the environment with which an organism might interact, including animals, plants, mushrooms, and bacteria.
Ex: Predatin
Abiotic Factor Definition
A non-living part of the environment that effects living organisms
Chemical or Physical parts, light intensity, moisture levels, wind, ph, mineral content
What will happen if biotic and abiotic factors change?
If a factor changes, the entire ecosystem will change.
phosphorus cycle
The movement of phosphorus atoms from rocks through the biosphere and hydrosphere and back to rocks.
nitrogen cycle
The transfer of nitrogen from the atmosphere to the soil, to living organisms, and back to the atmosphere
What does a food chain do?
Shows what eats what in an ecosystem.
Simplified food web
One chain
food chain structure
energy, producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, quaternary consumer
sun, grass, mice, owl, foxes, wolf
How organisms corelate
Competition, Mutualism, parasitism
How does energy work in trophic levels?
Every time you go up a trophic level, some energy gets lost; thus, there needs to be more energy to sustain organisms with a very high trophic level.
10% is passed on to the organisms in the next level
Why do farmers use fertilizers?
They provide plants with materials needed for growth such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
Eutrophication
A process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae or cyanobacteria.
Environmental Problems
Deforestation
Habitat Destruction
Soil Problem
Erosion
Salinization - water-soluble salts accumulate in soilLoss of soil fertility
Water management problem
Overhunting
Invasive Species
Ecology Investigations
The distribution of species (how spread out species are)
*The abundance of species (how many in number)
*Interactions between species
*Interactions between a species and its abiotic environment
