Exam 2 Flashcards
Important redox reactions in water bodies
- Aerobic respiration (needs oxygen)
- Dissimilatory nitrate reduction (denitrification)
- Iron reduction (increases alkalinity)
- Sulfate reduction (anaerobic)
- Methane fermentation
Importance of P to organisms
- Needed for ADP and ATP
- nucleic acids, phospholipids
Redfield Ratio
- Ratio of number of atoms of each element
- used to compare needs of phytoplankton with available nutrient ratios
Algal mass vs total P
- Trophic state of lake is often strongly related to P loading
- Algal mass is also related to the growth rate of the phytoplankton
Sources of P
- weathering of P-containing rocks
- marine deep ocean sediments
- anthropogenic P - cultural eutrophication
PP
- particulate phosphate
- often largest source of P in lakes
How is Fe present in oxygenated waters
Fe^+3
ferric
Iron trap for P
- less available P for algae when there is oxygen at sediment-water interface
- because Fe^+3 precipitates and traps the P from dissolving into lake
Critical point for eutrophication
- when hypolimnion becomes anoxic
- iron is reduced and becomes soluble
- more P is released which increases internal P recycling and loading
Sulfur trap for Fe
- Lake must be eutrophic enough for sulfate reduction
- Iron sulfides precipitate and bind Fe
- if enough FeS precipitates then it can create iron poor water
Trophic level
-contain functionally similar organisms that utilize similar food resources
Trophic dynamics
-transfer of energy from one part of the ecosystem to another
Bottom up control
- limited by nutrient availability
- if you increase primary producers then everything above also increases
Top down control
- predators control abundance in ecosystem
- increase in tertiary consumers, decrease in 2nd consumers, increase in primary consumers, decrease in primary producers
Omnivory
- feeding on several trophic levels at once
- common in aquatic systems
Mixotrophy
-both a primary producer and a heterotroph
Ontogeny
- diet shifts during development
- may change the food level an organism feeds on
Microbial loop
- food web of smaller organisms
- bacteria, heterotrophic flagellated and ciliates that can use DOM or eat each other
Eubacteria
- bacteria that have peptidoglycan cell membrane
- present in less extreme environments
Archaea
- bacteria that have pseudopeptidoglycan cell membrane
- common in more extreme environments
Characteristics of bacteria
- small prokaryotic cells
- tolerate wide range of conditions
- 20 minute generation times
Role of bacteria in lakes
- Decomposers
- fix nitrogen from atm into useable form
- some pathogenic
- autotrophic bacteria produce OM
Controls of bacteria growth
- temperature
- acquisition of nutrients and controls of growth
Assimilative
- incorporate elements/nutrients into the cell
- cellular process of bacteria growth