Energy and Matter Exchange in the Biosphere 1

Question 1

What is ecology?

Answer 1

The study of the living and non-living interactions in an ecosystem

Question 2

What is dynamic equilibrium?

Answer 2

system with constant change, top consumers are most sensitive

Question 3

What are the levels of organization?

Answer 3

Biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, multicellular organism, organ system, organ

Question 4

What is the biosphere? 3 parts of the biosphere?

Answer 4

part of earth inhabited by organisms, lithosphere (earth’s crust, outer solid part of earth), hydrosphere (water portion of earth’s crust), atmosphere (gasses that surround the earth)

Question 5

What are the at-risk categories?

Answer 5

Extinct
Extirpated (no longer exist in one part of country)
Endangered (close to extinction in all parts of country)
Threatened (species likely to become endangered)
Special Concern (species at risk, low/declining numbers)

Question 6

What are indicator species?

Answer 6

species sensitive to small changes in environmental conditions, early warning system for health of an ecosystem, amphibians (2 ecosystems/food chains, aquatic and terrestrial)

Question 7

Describe the role of organisms

Answer 7

sun, autotrophs (producers, produce their own food, make 99% of all biomass), heterotrophs (tertiary, secondary, primary consumers), decomposers (heterotrophs feed on detritus)

Question 8

What is a trophic level? What is the first trophic level? What is the original energy source?

Answer 8

How far an organism is from the original source, plants, sun

Question 9

What does the food chain show?

Answer 9

step sequence of who eats who in biosphere, shows energy transfers and cycling of matter in biosphere

Question 10

What do food webs always start with?

Answer 10

autotrophs

Question 11

What is chemosynthesis

Answer 11

producers (chemoautotrophs) make food with water, carbon dioxide and an energy source other than the sun (ammonia, sulfur))

Question 12

How do organisms use energy stored in their food?

Answer 12

cell resp

Question 13

What limits the number of trophic levels?

Answer 13

energy flows in one direction, only 10% energy transferred to next trophic level, 90% lost to thermal energy released by metabolism (cell resp)

Question 14

What are the two laws of thermodynamics?

Answer 14

energy can be changed from one form to another but cannot be created or destroyed, any energy change results in loss of energy as heat

Question 15

longer food chains…

Answer 15

less energy for top consumer

Question 16

What are ecological pyramids?

Answer 16

visually rep energy flow in food chains, pyramid of biomass (total dry mass of all living matter, first trophic level largest), pyramid of energy (energy flowing in level, rep by J/KJ, proportional), pyramid of numbers (total number of organisms (4th trophic tiny)

Question 17

What type of system is a biosphere?

Answer 17

closed system, energy can move in and out, matter does not enter or leave, matter must be recycled, bio-geochemical cycles

Question 18

What are bio-geochemical cycles?

Answer 18

cycle of transferring nutrients from environment to organism to environment, hydrological, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous

Question 19

What are the 2 sources of freshwater?

Answer 19

Ground water (rain seeps into soil), surface water (precipitation collects above ground in lakes and rivers, glaciers)

Question 20

What is percolation? leaching? water table?

Answer 20

movement of liquid through porous material, removal of soluble minerals by percolation, top level of region below ground saturated with water

Question 21

What are the types of acid rain?

Answer 21

Wet acid deposition (SO2 and NOx from factory and automobile emissions (fossil fuel burning) mixes with water in sky and fall as rain), dry acid deposition (same source, fall as solid)

Question 22

What is the carbon cycle?

Answer 22

cycle of matter where c atoms move from inorganic (CO2) form to organic (nutrients, peat) form, back to inorganic, reservoirs

Question 23

What is a mesocosm?

Answer 23

experiment, mini ecosystem

Question 24

What are human impacts on the carbon cycle?

Answer 24

burning fossil fuels, deforestation, CO2 added to atmosphere, ocean can only absorb so much CO2

Question 25

What is the oxygen cycle?

Answer 25

oxygen cycles between living things and the atmosphere (photosynth and cell resp), stored in atmosphere, water, rocks

Question 26

Describe the nitrogen cycle

Answer 26

needed for proteins and DNA, nitrogen fixation (nitrogen fixing bacteria, lightning, legumes, N gas to ammonia), nitrification (ammonia NH3, to nitrite NO2 to nitrate NO3), decomposition (detritus to ammonia), denitrification (nitrate to N gas), assimilation (change nutrient to different molecule)

Question 27

Describe the phosphorous cycle

Answer 27

nutrient required by all living things, DOES NOT INVOLVE ATMOSPHERE ANAEROBIC, short term cycle (phosphates inw ater enter food chain through producers, return to soil decomp, phos absorbed by plants, used by photosyn, eaten), long term cycle (phos dissolve in water, erosion carry to strems turn into land)

Question 28

What is eutrophication?

Answer 28

oligotrophic lakes fill with nutrients become land