food chain and energy transfer Flashcards
what is the ultimate source of energy
the sunlight which is converted into chemical energy
how does the sunlight get transferred to the other organisms
the plant absorb the sunlight use it to make sugars and other biomass, the animal then eats the biomass and energy is transfered
what are producers
photosynthetic organisms that manufacture organic substances using light energy water carbon dioxide and minerals
what are consumers
they are organism that obtain their energy by feeding on or consuming other organisms rather than using the energy of the sunlight directly, animals are consumers and animals that eat other consumers are secondary and so on
what are saprobionts
they are decomposers that break down complex material in dead organisms to simpler ones they release valuable minerals that can be used by the plant to grow and recycle the minerals
what is a food chan
the way the feeding relationship exist within a community, between producers and primary consumers each stage in the chain are divided into trophic layer which are stages
what are food webs
the interlinking of food chains to form food webs
what is biomass
the total mass of living material in a specific area at a given time measure g/m2
how do we measure biomass and why cant we use fresh mas
the presence of varying amount of water means that we cannot measure biomas through this as it makes it unreliable
so we need to measure the mass of carbon or dry mas
what problems does measuring biomass cause and how is it resolved
the organisms must be killed so an only small sample is used and this sample may not be representitive
how can chemical energy store on dry mass be calculated
using calorimetry, the sample of dry mass is weighed and then burnt in pure oxygen within a sealed chamber , the b is surrounded by a water bath and the heat combustion causes a small temp rise in the water
if we know the volume of the water and the temp rise we can measure the energy released by the biomass
