Ecosystem Ecology Flashcards
What is a system?
A system is a network of relationships that interact by exchanging components such as energy, matter, inputs, and outputs
Negative Feedback
When a system serves itself. Where outputs feed the inputs. This circular process is called negative feedback. A good example of negative feedback is the human body.
Positive Feedback loop
A system increasing its outputs and therefore increasing its inputs in a downward spiral, the direction is linear and ultimately leads to collapse. ONE DIRECTION SUCKS!
Closed System
No such thing as one. There are no defined boundaries between systems. They all interact and intermix.
Dynamic equilibrium
Ultimately a working system will equalize its inputs and outputs. Once these processes work in equivalent rates, it is considered that the system is in dynamic equilibrium.
Desertification
Concept of something becoming more and more like a desert.
Once a system is in dynamic equilibrium, it will stray to stay there. All process intended to maintain the internal conditions of the system is known as
HOMEOSTASIS
Systems cannot be viewed on their components alone. __________ _________ must also be taken into consideration.
Emergent properties.
Ecosystem
Consists of all living organisms and abiotic factors that interact in a given area at the same time, It’s the marriage of biological, chemical and physical factors in an environment.
What is the most important factor in an ecosystem?
The way energy is converted into biomass
Productivity is…
The different rates at which different ecosystems convert energy to biomass.
Most productive area in the world is….
Around the arctic because sun hits that area the most.
Lithosphere
The rock and sediment layer beneath our feet, but not the inner layers of the earth.
Atmosphere
The air surrounding our planet. Composed of different layers.
Hydrosphere
All the water on Earth. Including vapor, ice and groundwater. (water in the sky is included as well)
Biosphere
The area where all living organisms are and the abiotic factors that influence them, up and down.
The Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and Biosphere all _______
overlap at times
Nutrient Cycle/Biogeochemical Cycle
The movement of nutrients through ecosystems.
The chemicals and nutrients that we have on our planet will always be there, they just ____
change forms, and change where they are located.
Carbon composes
organic matter
Carbon is
essential for life.
The majority of carbon is located _____
in underground sources where it’s trapped.
The carbon cycle takes into account ____
all the forms and routes of carbon
Oil comes from
Dead plants and form a fossil fuel! (hydrocarbons)
Carbon in the grounds get pulled up by
plants
Phosphorus is vital for
life and is a major component of cell development. DNA, RNA, etc.
There are no ________ of phosphorus
atmospheric sources
Phosphorus is found in
sediment and rock, and has to weather away.
Phosphorus is taken in by
primary producers and enters the food chain
Phosphorus is a ______ at times
gas
Nitrogen is major component of
cells, proteins, DNA, RNA and is also essential for plant growth.
98% of Nitrogen is
in the air (atmosphere)
Nitrogen fixation
A process where inert N2 combines with hydrogen to form ammonia (NH3) and whose water soluble ions (NH4) can be taken up by plants.
The process of nitrogen fixation only happens in two ways.
Lighting striking
Air on the top layer of soil comes in contact with nitrogen fixation bacteria. So without certain types of bacteria, plants can’t get nitrogen at all. The process is also similar to nitrification.
Nitrification
Bacteria live on plants that convert nitrogen into NO2, NO3, and NH3
Dinitrifying
Turning Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia back into nitrogen and oxygen
Haber Bosch process
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, two Germans looking for ways to make bigger bombs discovered how to convert Nitrogen into Ammonia, NO2 and NO3. This created fertilizers
How does Nitrogen get back into the atmosphere?
Denitrifying bacteria convert the nitrates into N2 gas
Synthetic fertilizers include
Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus and are now all over the place.
Excess nitrates in an ecological system will lead to…
runoffs into streams and rivers and ultimately flows to steady lakes, ponds, etc. and sits.
Nitrates (and to a lesser extent phosphates) cause
algae to bloom in large numbers.
Algal blooms
they eat up all the oxygen in the lake and causes the lake to become hypoxic (no oxygen)
The process of putting excess nutrients in an area and leading to hypoxic conditions is called
eutrophication
Eutrophication process
excess nutrients –> algal blooms –> hypoxic conditions –> eutrophication! which kills all the fish.
Hydrologic Cycle
Water goes through the process of evaporation, converts to gas, becomes less dense, rises into the atmosphere, condenses into a liquid forming into precipitation and falls as rain or snow. Water can also enter the system through transpiration or the release of water vapor by plants and animals (mostly plants)
Once water returns to the Earth’s surface it is stored in many different places like:
Underground reservoirs or aquifers. Water here is called groundwater and is held in a sponge-like rock/soil layer. The uppermost layer here is called the water table.
The rock cycle is the
slowest, almost unchanging system
Rock Cycle
Magma cools and becomes igneous rock. Igneous rock weathers and erodes to become sediment. Sediment compresses into sedimentary rock. Over time, sedimentary rock becomes metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rock ultimately melts to form magma, and it starts all over again.
The rock cycle is under
the big umbrella of plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is
the movement of the earth’s mantle upward as it heats up and down as it cools.
There are ____ major tectonic plates that drive continent movement and natural disasters.
15
Divergent plate boundaries
When two plates are drifting apart and form a bubble of magma in between them
Transform plate boundaries
When two plates are slipping and grinding past one another in opposite directions. Think earthquakes
Convergent plate boundaries
Two plates colliding that either subduct, one goes under the other or uplift, both lift up.
Landscape Ecology
The information that scientists use to predict, plan, and inform about how to use the region for future and present development.
Ecotone
The intermingling area in which two meeting systems interact.
GIS is used to
help map the modern age.
