Energy Flow In Biosphere Flashcards
Source of almost all energy on the earth?
The sun
The ability to reflect light
Albedo
About 30% of energy from the sun is reflected…
into space by clouds, particles of air, or from land or oceans
About 19% of energy from the sun is …
absorbed by gasses such as water vapour and CO2 in the atmosphere. (Green house effect)
About 51% of energy from the sun …
reaches the earths surface, may warm the planets surface and oceans
About 1-2% of energy from the sun is …
Used in photosynthesis
Producers
Organisms that produce their own food, also known as autotrophs
Consumers
Organisms that must obtain their own energy from their food also known as heterotrophs
Trophic levels
Describes the step in the food chain that the organism occupies
First law of thermodynamics
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from on form to another
Second law of thermodynamics
Whenever energy is converted from one form to another, some is lost, so not all energy is useable to the next level
Energy transfer
When energy moves form one trophic level to the next the amount of energy transferred from one level to the next is ~10%
Ecological Pyramid
Shows trophic levels by counting the number of each type of organism in a food chain, sometimes does not have upright pyramid shape
Pyramid of Biomass
biomass is dry mass of living, organisms per unit area given in g/m2
Pyramid of energy
Shows the total amount of energy that is transferred through the trophic levels. Pyramid is always upright because energy passed on to next level is always a reduction. Pyramid shows how little energy is left at highest trophic levels.
