Energy Cycles Flashcards
How is energy transferred through an ecosystem?
- light energy for photosynthesis from the sun to the producer.
- consumers eat the producer, energy is absorbed.
- producers and consumers respire, energy is lost through heat.
- when organisms die, they are eaten by decomposers, who also respire and lose energy through heat.
what is radiation from the sun used for?
to fuel metabolic reactions necessary to keep organisms alive.
what is the equation for respiration?
glucose + (6) oxygen –> (6) carbon dioxide + (6) water
what is respiration?
the process by which organisms break down biomass to provide the ATP needed to drive the metabolic reactions which take place in cells.
What is bond energy?
the amount of energy needed to break or form a bond.
what is an exothermic reaction?
a reaction which releases energy; warms surroundings.
what is an endothermic reaction?
a reaction which takes in energy; cools surroundings.
what are bonds like in organic molecules?
they contain more bonds but are a lot weaker. less energy needed to form or break bond.
what are bonds like in inorganic molecles?
contain less but stronger bonds; moer energy is needed to form or break bond.
what energy is used for ATP production?
there is a net gain of energy as less energy is used to break the bonds in organic molecules than the energy released when bonds are formed in inorganic molecules; remaining is used to sythesise ATP.
do organic molecules contain larger numbers of carbon-hydrogen bonds?
yes
what bond is formed bertween carbon and hydrogen?
covalent bond
are non polar bonds hard to break?
no
why does photosynthesis need erergy from the sun?
more energy is required to break inorganic molecules than the energy released to form organic molecules. without energy from the sun, there wouldn’t be enough activation energy.
