Energy in Biomass Flashcards
What is meant by ‘organic waste’?
Wastes from living organisms that contains carbon compounds carbohydrates, fats and proteins).
What does the word ‘biomass’ mean?
The mass of living material.
Which processes return carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?
Respiration and combustion (burning)
How can energy wastage be reduced in a food change?
Reduce the number of stages. Carnivores have less energy available than herbivores who only eat plants.
Give an example of a detritus feeder.
Worms
What is a Sankey diagram?
A type of graph with arrow shapes which shows total energy taken in and how it is transferred.
Why does a compost heap get hot?
The energy from respiration heats up the surroundings.
Why do we normally eat herbivores rather than carnivores?
There are less stage in the food chain. Eating plants is the most efficient way of feeding the world population, but if we want meat, less energy is wasted by eating herbivores.
What do we mean by a stable community in terms of recycling of nutrients?
The processes that remove materials from the environment are balanced by processes that return these materials. Materials such as carbon are constantly recycled.
When a calf eats grass, only about 30% of the material is turned into new growth of the calf. What happens to the other 70%?
There is undigested food in the faeces (cow dung), urea lost in the urine, the calf produces methane which is left in the atmosphere, the energy released in respiration is eventually wasted heating the surroundings.
