Food Chains + Water And Carbon Cycles

Question 1

What do food chains start with and what do they show

Answer 1

• start with producers
• show what’s eaten —> by what
• e.g. dandelion —> rabbits

Question 2

What are producers usually

Answer 2

• green plants or algae
• producing glucose via photosynthesis

Question 3

What is the glucose produced by green plants used for

Answer 3

• make other biological molecules
• which is the plant’s biomass — mass of living material
• can be thought as energy store in a plant
• this energy is transferred through the food chain when the producers are eaten

Question 4

How does the food chain order go

Answer 4

• Producer
• primary consumer
• secondary consumer
• Tertiary consumer

Question 5

Describe the population of prey and predators

Answer 5

• they go in cycles
• if pop of prey increases = pop of predator increases = pop of prey decreases = pop of predator decreases
• there’s a delay in graphs due to it taking time to reproduce

Question 6

Describe the water cycle

Answer 6

• energy from sun = water evaporate into water vapour
• (water vapour also comes from transpiration in plants)
• warm water vapour rises, cools and condenses into clouds
• clouds precipitate onto land, providing fresh water for plants and animals

Question 7

What are living things made out of

Answer 7

• What they take in from the environment around them
• these return to environment when the organism decays

Question 8

Where does decays happen fastest

Answer 8

• warm, moist, aerobic conditions
• microorganisms re mor active in these conditions

Question 9

What does decay do

Answer 9

Puts the stuff plants need to grow back into the soil
—> e.g. mineral ions

Question 10

What is the carbon cycle

Answer 10

The constant cycle of carbon

Question 11

Describe the carbon cycle

Answer 11

• CO2 removed from atmosphere by green plants + algae
• carbon is used to make up the plants’ biomass
• when the plants respire = some CO2 is returned to atmosphere
• when plants are eaten, carbon is passed through food chain as fats + proteins
• when animals respire = some CO2 is returned to atmosphere
• when plants, algae and animals die, microorganisms decay them. respiring CO2 back into atmosphere
• waste produced by animals can also be broken down by microorganisms, achieving the same affect
• burning fossil fuels also releases CO2 into atmosphere
• Therefore carbon is being constantly cycled as energy from the air, through food chains, via microorganisms and back to the air again