Lecture 5.4 Flashcards
List the Progression of complexity of Ecology
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
consists of all of the populations in an area and the nonliving physical environments
Ecosystem
Ecologists study __ and ___
Energy flow and chemicals
Chemicals generally exist in
cycles through the ecosystem
Plants are eaten by herbivores
primary consumer
Herbivores are eaten by a carnivore
secondary consumer
Likely that another carnivore is involved that consumes the first carnivore
tertiary consumer
eat plants and animals
Omnivore
eaters of dead material/detritus
Detritivore
: Bacteria and fungi that take organic material and break it down into inorganic compounds
Decomposers
: earth worms that take the smaller chunks and break it down into even smaller chunks
Detritivore
: something big like a turkey vulture, eats large chunks of meat and breaks them down into small chunks
Scavengers
: the amount of energy on one level that is made into organism on the next
Food chain efficiency
a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem. Energy is lost at each step as you go up the trophic level
Ecological pyramid
a grasshopper eating a leaf, 50% lost as feces, 33% lost as cellular respiration this is an example of
ecological pyramid