Food Production Flashcards
How can we increase food yield?
using fertilisers and pesticides
What nutrients do fertilisers contain
Nitrogen, Phosphorus and potassium
What are nitrates used to produce?
Amino acids which are made into proteins
Why are fertilisers added to soil
To increase the soil nitrate content
Why is nitrogen needed for plant growth?
plants need nitrogen to make their proteins
Describe how fertilisers can have an impact on the environment
Fertilises can leach into fresh water adding extra unwanted nitrates,
nitrates cause algal bloom,
algal bloom reduces light reaching plants in the water
, and the reduced light levels kill these aquatic plants,
the dead aquatic plants and dead algae become food for bacteria therefore the bacteria numbers increase,
the bacteria use up large quantities of oxygen this reduces the oxygen available for rother organisms,
the oxygen levels decrease so much that other species die off,
biodiversity decreases
What are pesticides used for?
Sprayed on to crops to kill pests
What can pesticides do to organisms and why
Pesticides can accumulate in the bodies of organisms over time, this is because the toxic pesticides are passes along food chains, the toxicity increases at each level of the food chain and can reach lethal levels
What is the build up of toxic substances in living organisms called
bioaccumulation
What is a genetically modified crop?
GM crop plants received genes from different species incorporated into its own DNA
What can using genetically modified crop plants help
reduce the use of pesticides and fertilisers
What is a biological control?
the use of living organisms to control populations of pest species
What is bioaccumulation
The build up of toxic substances in living organisms
Discuss how nitrogen enters plants and can be passed on to animals
Nitrates are absorbed from the soil
They are used to produce amino acids in the plants
Amino acids are used to make proteins
Animals consume plants to obtain amino acids
