Exam 4 Flashcards
The ability of an ecosystem to return to its equilibrium state after an environmental disturbance is called ________.
resilience
A re-created ecosystem in a laboratory environment is known as a ________.
Microcosm
Decomposers are associated with which class of food web?
Detrital
The primary producers in an ocean grazing food web are usually ________.
phytoplankton
What term describes the use of mathematical equations in the modeling of linear aspects of ecosystems?
analytical modeling
The position of an organism along a food chain is known as its ________.
Trophic level
. The loss of an apex consumer would impact which trophic level of a food web?
All of the above
A food chain would be a better resource than a food web to answer which question?
How does energy move from an organism in one trophic level to an organism on the next trophic level?
The weight of living organisms in an ecosystem at a particular point in time is called:
biomass
Which term describes the process whereby toxic substances increase along trophic levels of an ecosystem?
biomagnification
Choose the term that encompasses all organisms that can make their own food using inorganic molecules:
autotrophs
. In the English Channel ecosystem, the number of primary producers is smaller than the number of primary consumers because________.
the primary producers have a high turnover rate
. What law of chemistry determines how much energy can be transferred when it is converted from one form to another?
the second law of thermodynamics
The mussels that live at the NW Eifuku volcano are examples of _______.
primary consumers
The movement of mineral nutrients through organisms and their environment is called a ________ cycle.
biogeochemical
Carbon is present in the atmosphere as ________.
carbon dioxide
The majority of water found on Earth is:
salt water
The average time a molecule spends in its reservoir is known as ________.
residence time
The process whereby oxygen is depleted by the growth of microorganisms due to excess nutrients in aquatic systems is called ________.
eutrophication
The process whereby nitrogen is brought into organic molecules is called ________.
nitrogen fixation
Which of the following approaches would be the most effective way to reduce greenhouse carbon dioxide?
Plant more environmentally-suitable plants.
How would loss of fungi in a forest effect biogeochemical cycles in the area?
Carbon would accumulate in dead organic matter and waste.
What is Eutrophication?
Eutrophication is a natural process that results from accumulation of nutrients in lakes or other bodies of water.
True or False: Eutrophication, climate change, and errosion are natural?
True
What is Cultural eutrophication?
Human Nutrient enrichment
Where does Cultural eutrophication usually occur?
Often happens in aquatic ecosystems
Cause high growth of algae and high use of oxygen
What is the Phosphorus Cycle a result of?
Needs to be release from the weathering of rocks
Or the turning of sediments from the ocean
True or False: Phosphorus is rare in soil and water
True
What are the human disruptions of Phosphorus Cycle?
mining for phosphate based detergent and for farming fertilizers
Tide used to be like this
What does the Eutrophication of nitrogen produce?
Smog and Vog
Often in large cities
Atmospheric nitrogen is abbreviated as?
N2
The nitrogen cycle is …..
A bacterial driven cycle
Explain the role of bacteria in the nitrogen cycle
Bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air
Denitrifying bacteria convert nitrogen back into N2
What is the biggest reservoir of carbon?
The ocean
What are the types and percentages of water on Earth?
97% salt
3% fresh
2% Glaciers/ deep groundwater
1% available to us
What is a point source?
Point- you can determine where the pollution comes from
What is a non-point source.
Nonpoint- you cannot tell where the pollution comes from
True or False: Animals decompose faster than plant detritus
True
What are the steps in vertebrate animal decomposition?
Fresh: an animals body will start to decompose right agter death. In this phase, their body chemicals will be responsible for the process
Bloat- In this stafe 4-10 after death. Their body will look swollen and start to give off a foul smeell
Ctive decat: once they pass away after about 10-20 days, this phase will take place. Their body will no shrink from being inflated
Advanced decay: All the fleas will be gone leaving only their hair and bones behind
Dry decay: And the name implies, all that will be left in this phase are their dry bones
Within 3 weeks
True or False: High Marsh has a higher decomposition rate because it is not submerged with water all the time
False- lower
What guilds?
animals that use resources in similar way
Name the guilds
Shredders- chewers and miners
Collectors-filter or suspension feeders
Scrapers-Mineral and Organic feeders
Predators-Swallows, Piecers
Which soil type is the most fertile?
Grasslands
Why is grassland soil the most fertile?
Developed by underground root system
Maintained by fire
True or False: Soil can be its own ecosystem
True
What are the three main types of soil?
Sand, clayey, loamy
Which soil holds the best nutrients?
Loamy best at holding nutrients
What is the largest particle of soil?
sand
Discuss sand as a soil
2mm to .5 mm in diameter
Large air gaps
Water drains easily, (high permeability)
True or False: Rock and gravel are not soil particles as they are too big
True
Discuss loam as soil
0.5- 0.05 mm diameter
Water drains slowly ( standing/ permeable)
Discuss clay as soil
Smallest soil particles
<0.05 mm
Water does not drain easily ( low permeability)
How is soil created?
Parent material
Any material from which soil is formed
Usually some type rock
Sand comes from quartz
Eroded Applalachean mountain
Major component of granite
Rock begins to disinter
Rainwater is slightly acidic and breaks rock
What is an aquifer?
Underground pool of water like a lake
What is Saturation?
When water moves down.
What is Field capacity?
Amount of water left in soil after 2 days that has not drained away
Available water for plant growth
What is a Wilting Point?
No more water is available for plants
What is Cation Exchange Capacity
The total amount of cation that a soil can retain
True or False: The higher the soil CEC the greater ability it has to store plant nutrients
True
Soil CEC increases as …
The amount of clay increases
Good thing at a low level
Detrimental as a high level
The amount of organic matter increases
The soil pH increases
Neutral
Acid
A pH less than 4-5
Low nutrient
Low CEC
More H+
Alkaline
Higher nutrient holding capacity
OH- higher CEC
How does soil form?
Soil forms in layer that we call horizons
Name the horizons
O- horizon- organic matter, dead leaves, plant and animal matter
A horizton - topsoil
Minerals soil with nutrient Most plants root here
E-horizton- leaching zone (caliche) b-HORITZONG (SUBSOIL)- MINeral particles, clays, salts C- Horizon- weathered and broken parent tock D- Horizon “bedrock”- solid parent rock
What are the Soil Orders and Ecosystems Types?
Oxisols (ox)
Spodosols
Aridisols:
Mollisols
Ultrosols
Histosols
What are Oxisols and where are they found?
Tropics and subtropics
ntensely weathered by all the precipitation
Leaches out all of the good nutrients
Left with iron and aluminum
Won’t support agriculture
Red-red orange soil
Due to iron and iron oxides
Little accumulation of organic matter
Volcanic soils on islands have a similar soil type due to precipitation on one side of the island will form this
What are Spodosols and where are they found?
- Cold forested, most regimes
Lack humus and clay in the A- irzon
Whiteish colorad from 0-to 0.9
Iron and alumunim oxides in B horizon
Reddish color above and below 2
What are Aridisols and where are they found?
Deserts
Pale light color near surface
Long periods of soil moisture deficits
Little if any organic matter
Heigh CEC
Very fertile if add water
Salinization is common
If water is pulled back up it results in a level of salt
Soil becomes very salty
Here the white color is from salts that have precipitate in the soil
What are Mollisols and where are they found?
Best soil for farming- Grasslands
Richest grassland soils are in the midwest
What are Ultrosols and where are they found?
Most common soil type in North Carolina
Lost top soil
B-Horizon exposed
Dark orange red horizon
From Deciduous
Most nutrients are in the A horizon
Even fertilization is not able to be well retained
Most youthful are found along creeks, rivers, flood plains
Make most fertile soils for farming
What are Histosols and where are they found?
Pocosins- NC
The central concept of Histosols is that of soils that are dominantly organic. They are mostly soils that are commonly called bogs and saltmarsh- called peat
A soil is classified as Histosoil is it does not have permafrost and is dominated by organic soil materials.
When fire gets into a histosol it can burn for months
True or False: Ecosystems can be defined by the type of soil they overlay
TRUE
What is Hydrology?
Movement of water through the landscape; the heart of wetlands
What are the classifications of wetland on the basis of hydrology?
Basin Wetland (lentic)
Riverine Wetland
Fringe Wetland
Explain the Basin Wetland (lentic).
Physical: Water flow is vertical ( precipitation)
Hydroperiod: lone with floods during period of high rainfall
Explain the Riverine Wetland.
Periodically flooded banks od rivers and streams
Physical: Water is both vertical and horizontal (precipitation and stream/river flow)
Hydroperiod: aHave short periods of flooding with stream/river flow
Explain the Fringe Wetland.
Coastal areas of large lakes and oceans
Physical: Water flos is both vertical and horizontal ( precipitation and tidal flow)
Hydroperiod: May be short and regular. It is not seasonal like basin wetlands
What happens when hydrology is disrupted?
Wetland loss occurs
What is an Osmoconformer?
body is isotonic to surrounding (only works for marine organism in a stable environment)
Maintains its level of water and solutes by its environment
Conforms to its environment
What is an Osomoregulator?
Regulate the amount of water and solutes
Can maintain a higher water and lower salt concentration to its environment
Control internal osmolarity
Can leave marine environment and can go into a freshwater environment
Bull shark
Blue crab
Flounder
Salmon
Herring
Shad
TRUE OR FALSE: Humans are osmoregulators?
TRUE
Why are fire burns prescribed?
To reduce the fuel load and reduce the chance of a destructive fire
Control competing vegetation
Improvement of grazing
Management of wildlife by allowing species that they feed on to grow
Recreation management to maintain a park-like appearance
Thoong os saplings
Control of pest
Fire return intervals
What equipment is needed for a prescribed burn?
Drip or flame torch
Backpack water tanks
Flapper/swatters
5 gallons bucket of water on hand
Leaf rakes
Fireproof brooms soaked in water
What is climate?
Long-term weather patterns
Temperature
Precipitation
Humidity
Wind
Factors that effect climate
Which factors affect climate?
Distance from the sea
Altitude
Proximity to the equator
More consistent weather patterns
Timing of days consistent
What are 3 main influences of climate?
Latitude
1° F for every 100 miles North
Altitude
Decrease 3°F for every 1000 FT of elevation gained
Oceanic circulation
What are other important factors of climate?
Atmospheric circulation
Pattern of wind
Solar activity
Volcanic activity
Topography
Temperature
Precipitation
Wind factor
Windward
Tropical rainforest
Leeward
Shrub desert
Definition of an ecosystem:
All the living ( biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) parts of an environment as well as the interaction among them
What are the interactions in an ecosystem?
Producers ( obtain energy by making their own food; plant- (photosynthesis)
Consumers ( obtain energy by consuming their food)
Decomposers( get energy by breaking down dead organisms and the wastes of living things); bacteria, fungi, (molds, mushrooms), worms, termites, etc.
TRUE OR FALSE: The energy cycle is linear, the nutrient cycle is cyclical
TRUE
Discuss Primary Productivity.
By plants
Net productivity= Gross Productivity- Respiration
Most productive ecosystems have a high net productivity
Who are Secondary Productivity?
Heterotrophs
________ produces 2-3x the amount of biomass via photosynthesis versus the _______
Continental Shelf/ open ocean
What is produced by secondary consumers is called Secondary Productivity
Biomass
What is a Grazing Food web?
Based on photosynthesis
What is a Detrital Food Web?
Organisms that feed on decaying organic matter at base
How are Terrestrial ecosystems usually described?
As a pyramid
How are aquatic ecosystem usually described?
Bar or inverted pyramid
What makes the pyramid inverted?
Biomass of a whale makes the pyramid inverted
Through the decomposition of ________ the nutrients can be recycled to the producer
animal matter
True or False: Decomposers don’t get the macromolecules nutrients. They get the lignents
True
What are the Steps in decomposition?
Fragmentation
Breaking a leaf into smaller pieces
_ Leaching
Water soluble materials are removed from the dead plant material
Tea is made by leaching / Coffee too
Brown water streams and black water streams
_Catabolism
Begins the mineral removal process
_Humification
Simplified detritus converted to humus
Humas is a dark, amorphous substance
Highly resistant to microbial action
Undergoes decomposition very slowly
Holds a lot of nutrients which is why it decomposes slowly
Reservoir of nutrients due to colloidal nature
Minerals are removed
_Minteralization
Minerals are released into the environment
Humus is degraded to releases inorganic substances ( CO2, H20, etc) and nutrients
Humas acts a lot like clay, why?
Clay has negative charges on its surface and will attach to cations
Humas has a similar negative charge and will attach to cations
Pine needles do not make a good humus and do not release a lot of nutrients
What are the most Detritivores?
Most are invertebrates
What are the factors that affect decomposition?
Factors Affecting Rate of Decomposition:
Temperature
* microbial activity resspons qxponetilally to increase temperature unil enzymes denature
Moisture
* Mocirobial activer has option moisture
Lowe moisture= dessication, clow diffusion
Hihg mositive= low O2 available
pH
Chemical composition- decomposition rate will be slower when detritus is reich in lgnin and chitin. The rate increase when detritus is rich in nitrogen and water soluble substances like sugars
Climatic conditions- warm and moist environment favour decomposition. Low temperature and anaerobiosis inhibit decomposition
Food Chain: Transfer of energy/ food from the producer through a series of organisms is known as food chain
Food chairs represent energy flow through ecosystems
Different steps in a food chains are called trophic levels
