Exam 2 Flashcards
What makes our planet habitable?
Water, atmosphere, climate, magnetic field, geological activity, stable orbit/rotation.
How does geological activity make our planet habitable?
Plate tectonics and volcanic activity recycle nutrients/gases essential for life.
How does energy flow through food webs?
The base of the food web are producers with the most energy and as consumers eat each other they energy decreases at each trophic level.
How is energy transferred within the biopshere?
Through metabolic processes like digestion, respiration, and photosynthesis.
How is matter transferred within the biosphere?
Through biogeochemcial cycles.
What is the carbon cycle?
CO2 gas that is cycled between the ocean, atmosphere, soil, etc.
Why are the eukaryotes metabolisms important?
Anaerobic metabolism that produces oxygen that oxygenated the atmosphere in the beginning of life.
What are the different parts of the carbon cycle?
Photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and combustion.
What type of metabolisms are found within eukaryotes?
Aerobic, anaerobic, fermentation, photosynthesis, chemosynthesis.
Which metabolisms can prokaryotes only do?
Nitrification or nitrogen fixation
What is nitrification?
Converting ammonia into nitrate.
What is nitrogen fixation?
Converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia.
How is biodiversity measured?
Species richness/species eveness
What is species richeness?
The total number of different species in an area.
What is species eveness?
Distribution of individuals among those species.
What is genetic diversity?
Measures the variation in genetic makeup with populations of a species.
What are the benefits of biodiversity during intervals of global change?
Resilience, genetic diversity, ecosystem services.
What are some ecosystem services of biodiversity?
Pollination, water purification, climate regulation, food security, medicinal resources, cultural and recreational value, economic benefits.
What is resilience?
Higher biodiversity enhances an ecosystems resilience to help recover disturbances from climate change.
What is the reservior, residence time, and flex mechanism for carbon in the atmosphere?
Reservior is CO2, Residence time is 3 - 7 years, Flux Mechanisms is CO2 exchanged with terrestrial and marine ecosystems through photosynthesis and respiration combustion of fossil fuels and volcanic eruptions.
What is the reservior, residence time, and flex mechanism for carbon in terrestrial ecosytems?
Reservior is biomass, soil, and organic matter. Residence time is years to decades. Flux mechanisms enters through photosynthesis and released by respiration and decomposition.
What is the reservior, residence time, and flex mechanism for carbon in the ocean?
Reservior is dissolved inorganic/organic carbon. Residence time is about 1,000 years on average. Flux mechanisms is CO2 that is absorbed from the atmosphere to surface waters. Transported to the deep ocean and released through outgoing exchange with the atmosphere.
What is the reservior, residence time, and flex mechanism for carbon in geological reserviors?
Reserviors is fossil fuels and carbonate rocks. Residence time is carbon stored for millions to hundreds of million of years. Flux mechanisms is CO2 is transferred to the atmosphere through human activities like fossil fuels combustion. Natural processes like volcanic eruptions or weathering rocks.
How does energy enter into the biosphere?
Primarily through photosynthesis.
Also chemosythensis were bacteria use chemical energy to produce organic molecules without sunglight.
How does energy move around once its in the biosphere?
Food chains, trophic levels, decompositions.
What are the different levels of the biosphere?
Individual organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, biomes, and biosphere.
What are populations?
Groups of individuals of the same species living in the same area.
What are communties?
A biological community consists of multiple populations of different species living in the same are.
What is an ecosystem?
Biotic and abiotic components and the interactions between them, soil, air, water.
What is a biome?
Large-scale ecological regions with distinct climate, vegatation, and animal life.
What is the biosphere?
Encompasses all the Earth’s ecosystems and represents the sum total of all living organisms and their interactions.
All biomes together!
How are mass extinctions measured?
Magnitude of species loss and rate at how quickly it happens.
How has biodiversity changed through geologic time?
In the beginning there was little biodiversity. Cambrian explosion caused an influx in biodiversity. From there it has periods of increase and decrease.
What are the four charactersitics of life?
- Life spreads exponentially.
- Life needs energy.
- Life pollutes -> Produce waste
- Life is versatile in its interactions
What is the background rate of extinction?
Standard rate of extinction in Earth’s geological/biological history.
Normal extinction rate
How does background rate relate to current rates of extinction?
The current rate of species loss is 100 - 10,000 times the background extinction rate.
What are the fundamental characteristics of life?
Reproduction, heredity, cellular organization, growth and development, response to stimuli, adaptation through evolution, homeostasis, and metabolism.
What are the different ways species interact?
Mutualism, competition, antagonistic, amensalism, commensalism, neutralism.
What is mutualism?
Positive, positive
What is competition?
Negative, negative
What is antagonistic?
Positive, negative
What is amensalism?
Negative, neutral
What is commensalism?
Positive, neutral
What is neutralism?
Neutral, neutral
What is primary succession?
A newly formed area that is inhabited for the first time by species.
No pre-existing soil just rocks.
What is secondary succession?
Occurs in an area that has previously been inhabited.
Where there is soil!
What is the sixth extinction?
The ongoing mass extinction event we are currently caused by humans. Species loss rate is comparable to previous mass extinctions.
Why is the sixth extinction important to know about?
Rapid loss of biodiversity driven by habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and overexploitation of natural resources and spread of invasive species.
What effects does the sixth extinction have on ecosystems?
Pollution, nutrient cycling disrupted, pest control, and climate regulatino disrupted.
What is the anthropocene?
Geological epoch where humans are shaping Earth’s geology, ecosystems, and climate.
What is HIPPCO?
How humans are impacting biodiversity.
Habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, population, climate change, over harvesting.
What is the distinction between background and mass extinctions?
Background is the ongoing extinction at a steady rate of species loss and mass extinctions are catastrophic events of extinction.
What is the relationship between extinction rates and origination rates?
High diversity will be brought down by high extinction rates and large extinctions will be compensated by high origination rates.
They are expected to balance each other out.
What is the difference between interspecific and intraspecific competition?
Interspecific is different species and intraspecific is the same species.
What is the competitive inclusion principle?
Two species in competition can not coexist.
What is ecosystem succession?
The change in community composition (species), structure (spatial arrangement), and function (abiotic + biotic elements operate together).
What is leaky carbon?
Carbon that gets trapped through decomposition in the ground.
What is the Keeling Curve?
The curve of CO2 fluxing due to seasons during spring and fall due to plant growth cycles.
What type of relationship is photosynthetic rate and atmosphere CO2?
Negative, photosynthetic rate slows down with CO2 rate.
What does NPP stand for?
Net primary productivity.
Where is NPP highest?
In the rainforest because of high biodiversity, rainforests, mild temp, and lots of rain.
