Environmental Final Review Flashcards
Contrast how energy and matter move through an ecosystem
Energy: quality gets decreased as it moves through trophic levels
Matter: quality is the same as it gets cycled
What is primary productivity? Why is it important?
It’s the biological energy that’s transferred through the food web. It’s important because more primary productivity makes a food web more diverse, therefore making it resiliant.
how have human impacts disturbed the biogeochemical hydrological cycle?
increase in impermeable surfaces (buildings and pavements) which ends up carrying pollutants to surface water
How have human impacts disturbed the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle?
introuduction of this chemical through organic waste, manure from runoff, excess fertilization which ends up leading to cultural eutrophication
how have human impacts disturbed the biogeochemical carbon cycle?
introduction of this chemical through deforestation, fossil fuel combustion which leads to global climate change (global warming and ocean acidification)
Describe what causes a rainshadow effect
As air meets mountains, it rises and cools, creating water vapor which falls as rain. The other side of the mountain is left in the shadow of this rain, with dryer air, creating a desert.
What is the most productive zone of a freshwater ecosystem?
Littoral zone
how have human impacts disturbed the biogeochemical phosphorus cycle?
increased mining of this chemical to use for agricultural fertilizer allows the excess to go into the water and increase the growth of aquatic producers (eutrophication). Water eventually becomes hypoxic creating a dead zone.
How does melting sea ice lead to a feedback loop that increases arctic warming?
- decreases albedo which leads to the water absorbing more of the suns energy
- the warming of the water then contributes to more melting
- completes positive feedback loop
In a given ecosystem, producers convert solar energy into 15,000kcal of chemical energy stored in organic compounds. What is the amount of energy available to secondary consumers?
150kcal
How do freshwater wetlands provide valuable ecosystem services?
Regulating: they store runoff making the chances of flooding less likely, as the extra water is being held instead of going elsewhere
Supporting: plants along the shore trap sediments that eventually make up the soil
Provisioning: the wetlands provide habitation and sources of edible plants
The land use around the Chesapeake Bay is primarily agricultural, with large areas of land that were originally forested now used for the poultry industry. Many of these poultry farms are large-scale feeding operations.
Describe one unintended consequence of concentrated poultry feeding operations on the biodiversity in the Chesapeake Bay.
· (Organic) wastes could run off into the bay.
· Nutrients from feces or excess foods could run off into the bay.
· Antibiotics that are often used in such operations could be toxic to some aquatic organisms (e.g., algae).
· Hormones that are often used in such operations could affect the growth and reproduction of some aquatic organisms (e.g., frogs, fish).
What are two ecosystem services that the Mangrove Swamp provides?
Reduced erosion with protection from storm surges, nursery/habitat for for aquatic species, trees that give protection from predators
Coral reefs formed when corals acquire calcium ions ( Ca2+) and carbonate ions ( CO32−) from seawater and deposit solid CaCO3 to form their exoskeletons. Concern: relatively rapid decreases in ocean water pH will hinder the deposition of CaCO3. A graph shows the amount of CO2 dissolved in ocean water and ocean water pH (shown in parentheses) since 1850 and the predicted changes through 2100. [it goes up in a checkmark exponential way)
Explain how an increase in the amount of dissolved CO2 in ocean water results in a decrease in the pH of ocean water.
When carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean, it forms an acid (carbonic acid or H2CO3).
The concentration of H+ ions in solution with a pH value of 4 is how many times as great as the concentration of H+ ions in a solution with a pH value of 7?
1,000 times
Mangrove Swamp ecosystem service
They act as a buffer that protects the land by dissipating the energy in a storm surge. Fish nurseries, water filtration, recreation, aesthetics. ─────▄████▀█▄ ───▄█████████████████▄ ─▄█████.▼.▼.▼.▼.▼.▼▼▼▼ ▄███████▄.▲.▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ ████████████████████▀▀
Why can matter be cycled but energy can not?
Matter is cycled, energy is transfered. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that energy quality is reduced per transfer, and eventually dispersed through heat energy. Once it turns into heat E, it can not be uptaken and transferred. ──────────────────────────────── ───────────────██████████─────── ──────────────████████████────── ──────────────██────────██────── ──────────────██▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█────── ──────────────██▀███─███▀█────── █─────────────▀█────────█▀────── ██──────────────────█─────────── ─█──────────────██────────────── █▄────────────████─██──████ ─▄███████████████──██──██████ ── ────█████████████──██──█████████ ─────────────████──██─█████──███ ──────────────███──██─█████──███ ──────────────███─────█████████ ──────────────██─────████████▀ ────────────────██████████ ────────────────██████████ ─────────────────████████ ──────────────────██████████▄▄ ────────────────────█████████▀ ─────────────────────████──███ ────────────────────▄████▄──██ ────────────────────██████───▀ ────────────────────▀▄▄▄▄▀
Why is genetic biodiversity important?
diversity allows a greater survival chance for communities to survive against disasters. it also increases the efficiency of natural selection, as there are greater pressures to cut out less effective genetics. ───▄▀▀▀▀▀───▄█▀▀▀█▄ ──▐▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██▌▀▄▀▐██ ──▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒███▌▀▐███ ───▌▒▓▒▒▒▒▓▒██▌▀▐██ ───▌▓▐▀▀▀▀▌▓─▀▀▀▀▀
Bay is primarily agricultural, especially with poultry. Describe one unintended consequence of concentrated poultry feeding operations on the biodiversity in the Chesapeake Bay.
(Organic) wastes could run off into the bay.
Nutrients from feces or excess foods could run off into the bay.
Leading to cultural eutrophication which can create anoxic or hypoxic zones.
List atmosphere layers 1-4 then explain why temp increases in layer 2
HINT: TSMT
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere
1,000 times more ozone molecules in the second layer than the first which absorb that solar radiation.
Explain how the tilt of the Earth is responsible for the change in seasons.
Because the Earth’s axis is tilted away from the Sun at a 23.5° angle the Sun’s insolation is more oblique in the northern hemisphere. This results in less energy and the winter season in the N hemisphere.
Explain how the tilt of the Earth is responsible for the change in seasons.
Because the Earth’s axis is tilted away from the Sun at a 23.5° angle the Sun’s insolation is more oblique in the northern hemisphere. This results in less energy and the winter season in the N hemisphere.
Describe how upwelling affects marine coastal food webs.
Upwelling brings nutrient rich water to the surface which encourages the population growth of phytoplankton. An abundance of phytoplankton provides more energy that can increase the populations within the trophic levels abov
Describes the movement of energy in an ecosystem.
Energy is harnessed by producers, and available energy decreases with each trophic level transfer
