Key Area 3.5 - Food Production Flashcards
What does the increasing human population require?
An increased food yield
What can increasing food yield involve?
The use of fertilisers and pesticides
What do fertilisers provide?
Chemicals such as nitrates which increase crop yield
What can plants and animals which reduce crop yield be killed by?
Pesticides
What are nitrates dissolved and absorbed in?
Dissolved in soil water
Absorbed into plants
What are nitrates used to produce?
Aminos acids which are synthesised into plant proteins
What do fertilisers contain?
Minerals such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which helps plants to grow
What do fertilisers do?
Make crops grow faster and bigger, so that the crops increase
What do animals consume?
Plants or other animals to obtain amino acids for protein synthesis
Why can fertilisers be added to soil?
To increase the nitrate content of the soil
What are pesticides used for?
Farmers spray pesticides on crops to kill pests that will affect the growth of a crop
What happens as certain pesticides pass along food chains?
Toxicity increases and can reach lethal levels
Identify two alternatives to pesticides
Biological control
GM crops
Give problems with fertilisers
Fertilisers leach from fields into freshwater due to heavy rain
This increases the growth sunlight algae in the water (algal blooms)
The blooms black out sunlight and kills plants
Algae starts to die and are broken down by bacteria along with the dead plants
These bacteria divide and use up the oxygen reducing the oxygen in the coater
This results in the deaths if many organisms
What do algae blooms reduce?
Light levels, killing aquatic animals
