Ecology Flashcards
What is sustainability?
The ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time.
What is a sustainable ecosystem?
Ecosystems that can produce all the resources needed to sustain themselves indefinitely.
What is an abiotic factor?
Any non living factor of nature.
What is a biotic factor?
Living factors of nature.
What are biotic interactions?
mutualism, parasitism, commensalism, predation, competition
What are abiotic characteristics of an ecosystem?
water, oxygen, light, nutrients, soil
What is the biosphere?
The biosphere is one of the four layers that surround the Earth along with the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
What are nutrient cycles?
Describe the movement of chemical elements through different media, such as the atmosphere, soil, rocks, bodies of water, and organisms.
What are 3 nutrient cycles?
Water, carbon, and nitrogen
What is the water cycle
Liquid water evaporates into water vapour, condenses to form clouds, and precipitates back to earth in the form of rain and snow.
What is the carbon cycle?
reservoir of organic carbon, photosynthesis & cellular respiration equations
What is the nitrogen cycle?
nitrogen-fixing bacteria, nitrification, de-nitrification, nitrates can be used by organism
What are the trophic levels?
producers, primary, secondary, tertiary consumers, decomposers (detritus), food chains, food webs
What are the types of pyramids?
energy, biomass, numbers
What is the energy flow in ecosystems?
10% rule, 10% of the energy is transported to the
next chain
