Ecology Flashcards
What is an autotroph (producer)?
An organism that uses light or chemical energy bit create its own food
What is a heterotroph (consumer)?
An organism that cannot synthesize it’s own food so ur gets its nutrients from organic molecules formed by autotrophs
What is a trophic level?
It shows the organisms position on a food chain
What is a food chain?
A model that shows the linear pathway through which food is transferred from producers to primary consumers and to higher trophic levels
What is a food web?
A model of energy transfer in an ecosystem that shows the connections among food chains
What is a pyramid of energy?
A way of showing the amount of energy present in each trophic level
It cannot be inverted
What is a pyramid of numbers?
It is a way of representing the number of organisms in each trophic level
What is a pyramid of biomass?
A way of representing the amount of biomass in each trophic level
What is biomass?
Total dry mass of all the living, or once-living organisms in a given area
What is an inverted pyramid?
It is when there are fewer producers than consumers
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
Energy cannot be created or destroyed
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
States that heat always flows naturally from a hot object to a cold object, but never from a cold object to a hot object
What is Chemosynthesis?
A process where organisms split the hydrogen sulfide molecules and capture the energy stored in the bonds of the molecules
What is a polar molecule?
A molecule that has a positive and negative end
Water is polar because the hydrogen end is slightly positive and the oxygen end is slightly negative
What is a hydrogen bond?
An atom that is bonded to a hydrogen and is polar
What is albedo?
A term used to describe the amount of reflected energy
What is nitrification?
When bacteria convert nitrogen gas into nitrite or nitrate
What is nitrogen fixation?
The process whereby free atmospheric nitrogen is converted, usually by bacteria, into compounds such as ammonium and nitrates that can be used by other organisms
What is denitrification?
When bacteria convert nitrate or nitrite back into nitrogen gas
What is a population?
A group of individuals of the same species living in a specific area at a specific time
What is a community?
When populations of different species interact with one another as part of a community
What is an ecosystem?
A community of populations, together with abiotic factors that surround and affect it
What is a community?
All the organisms in all the interacting populations in a given area
What are the processes that maintain life at the ocean depths?
Cellular Respiration
Chemosynthesis
What is dynamic equilibrium best defined as?
A system that undergoes periodic disturbances to which it adjust
