Ecosystems Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
It’s a community of organisms interacting in a habitat.
What two types of habitats are there?
- Micro-habitat, (small habitat)
2. Macro-habitat, (big habitat)
Name 5 characteristics that all living things require.
- They’re made of cells/DNA
- They get/use nutrients
- They grow/develop
- They reproduce
- They respond/adapt to their environment
What’s another word for food chain?
Food web.
What are the 3 trophic levels?
- Producers, (plants)
- Consumers
- Decomposers, (bacteria&fungi)
What’s a food chain?
It’s a representation of the relationship between the 3 different trophic levels.
How does the energy flow work?
Who goes into who?
What is energy flow?
Matter and energy are transferred and transformed.
What is biomass?
The total mass of living matter in an ecosystem.
Which trophic level has the most biomass?
The producers.
How can energy loss occur in a food chain?
Everytime we go up by a level, (think of pyramid) there’s energy loss.
What are producers?
They are autotrophs.
What does autotrophs mean?
They produce their own food.
What do producers do?
They convert inorganic material, (gases for example) into organic material, (protein, sugars, fats, etc for example).
The principle mechanism, (photosynthesis) includes the production of what?
Sugar.
What does photo mean?
Light, (just think that you can’t take a photo without light).
What is the first unicellular organism?
Cyanobacteria.
What is cyanobacteria?
It was the first unicellular bacteria to produce oxygen.
What is primary productivity?
It’s the total amount of new plant material that were produced.
What does primary productivity depend on? Name 5 things.
- Sunlight
- Carbon dioxide concentration
- Availability of nutrients
- Water
- Temperature
What’s and algae produce the most ______ between 20 degrees celsius and 25 degrees celsius.
Oxygen.
Where is primary productivity the highest?
In warm, humid areas, (such as the rain forests for example).
What are consumers?
They are heterotrophs.
What is a heterotroph?
It’s when you get food from a variety of living things.
What are primary consumers?
Herbivores
What are secondary & tertiary consumers?
Carnivores
______ are consumers of multiple levels.
Omnivores
What do decomposers feed on?
They feed on dead or dying producers and consumers.
What is chemical recycling?
It’s when decomposers break down organic matter to make inorganic matter so that the producers can now use those again.
What’s the law of conservation of mass?
Matter cannot be created or destroyed. MATTER CAN ONLY BE TRANSFORMED.
What’s a disturbance?
It’s an event that disrupts/disturbs the ecosystem.
What can a disturbance lead to?
It can lead to extinction and change the availability of resources.
What are the two types of disturbances?
- Natural disturbances
2. Man-made disturbances
How do natural disturbances occur?
They occur due to environmental phenomena, (flooding, earth quakes, ice storms, etc).
Man made disturbances are the main form of what?
Ecological disturbances on earth.
What’s ecological succession?
After a disturbance, it’s what changes in an ecosystem over time and how the changes continue until the balance of the ecosystem is restored.
What’s an ecological footprint?
It’s approximately how much of the available resources we consume and much waste we make.
What does HPI stand for?
Happy Planet Index
What’s the formula for the HPI?
Experienced well-being X Life expectancy /Ecological footprint
