Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

Question 1

How much of the fresh water on earth is due to ground water?

Answer 1

95%

Question 2

What is percolation?

Answer 2

movement of water through layers of soil (to collect into ground water)

Question 3

What is fracking?

Answer 3

digging through the earth’s surface in order to get gas

Question 4

Why is fracking harmful?

Answer 4

it can contaminate ground water

Question 5

Is percolation a fast or slow process?

Answer 5

slow process

Question 6

When is water produced and consumed?

Answer 6

water is produced during cellular respiration and consumed during photosynthesis

Question 7

What does fixation mean?

Answer 7

turning (unusable) gas molecules to an usable form (organic)

Question 8

What is the main source of carbon for all organisms?

Answer 8

CO2

Question 9

What organism fixes CO2 into it’s usable form?

Answer 9

plants (through photosynthesis)

Question 10

Who breaks down the organic form of carbon back into CO2?

Answer 10

plants and animals (through cellular respiration)

Question 11

How else does organic carbon end up back as CO2 in the environment?

Answer 11

methanogens and decomposition

Question 12

What is methanogens?

Answer 12

bacteria that release methane gas as a byproduct of various reactions

Question 13

Is the carbon cycle stable or unstable?

Answer 13

stable

Question 14

What is one thing that has disrupted the carbon cycle?

Answer 14

burning of fossil fuels b/c during the carboniferous period, dead plants would be compacted into the soil and since the plants were’t burned, there was no excess release of CO2, but now with the burning of fossil fuels, theres an excess of CO2 causing problems

Question 15

How much of the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen?

Answer 15

78%

Question 16

Can a lot of organisms convert N2 to NH3?

Answer 16

nope, only a few

Question 17

What are examples of organisms that can fix nitrogen?

Answer 17

cyanobacteria, rhizobia in legumes

Question 18

What else can fix nitrogen?

Answer 18

lightening or other high energy source

Question 19

What exactly is nitrogen fixation?

Answer 19

converting H2 to NH3 or NO3-

Question 20

How and in what form do plants get nitrogen?

Answer 20

they get nitrogen from the soil in the form of NH3 or NO3-

Question 21

How do animals get nitrogen?

Answer 21

from plants

Question 22

What do animals use nitrogen for?

Answer 22

buildup of proteins and nucleic acids

Question 23

How does nitrogen come out of animals?

Answer 23

via excretion or decomposition

Question 24

What is denitrification?

Answer 24

when anaerobic bacteria turn nitrate back to nitrogen gas

Question 25

What is special about phosphorus?

Answer 25

it does not have a gaseous phase

Question 26

How do animals and plants get phosphorus?

Answer 26

phosphorus weathers from rocks and plants take it up in soil, and animals eat the plants

Question 27

How do animals release phosphorus?

Answer 27

via excretion or decomposition

Question 28

What is a downside of phosphorus?

Answer 28

it needs to be taken up by plants from the soil quickly, or it can get washed away and lead to eutrophication

Question 29

What is a source of iron for phytoplankton?

Answer 29

saharan dust blowing across the Atlantic

Question 30

Where does all energy come from?

Answer 30

the sun

Question 31

How much of the suns energy do we actually use?

Answer 31

1%

Question 32

What are trophic levels?

Answer 32

a food web that shows the transfer of energy

Question 33

What is net primary productivity?

Answer 33

the amount of biomass or carbon produced by primary producers

Question 34

What is the equation for net primary equation?

Answer 34

GPP (energy made during photosynthesis)-R (energy used by the producer for its own processes)

Question 35

What is secondary productivity?

Answer 35

food eaten (energy consumed to grow and develop) - energy lost (through feces or cellular respiration)

Question 36

About how much energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next?

Answer 36

10%

Question 37

What is the pyramid of energy?

Answer 37

depicts the energy at each trophic level

Question 38

Why is the pyramid of energy always upright?

Answer 38

because energy always flows from producers to consumers (unidirectional), and an environment without sufficient primary productivity will die off

Question 39

What is the pyramid of biomass?

Answer 39

represents the mass of organisms at each trophic level

Question 40

Why can the pyramid of biomass be upright or inverted?

Answer 40

because in ecosystems such as the ocean, fishes have higher biomass than primary producers (because they are tiny and die off very quickly)

Question 41

What is the pyramid of individuals?

Answer 41

shows the distribution of age and sex of a population or how much of producers, carnivores are in an population

Question 42

What is the top-down effect?

Answer 42

alterations in upper tropic levels impact lower trophic levels

Question 43

What is the bottom up effect?

Answer 43

alterations in low trophic levels impact higher trophic levels

Question 44

What dies island biogeography graph show?

Answer 44

the number of species on island equilibrium between extinction and colonization

Question 45

What is the impact of distance on colonization?

Answer 45

far: less colonization
near: more colonization

Question 46

What is the impact of a bigger island on extinction?

Answer 46

big: less extinction (less comp and more species)
small: more extinction