Living World Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
a community of plants and animals that are diverse, but share characteristics
What is biotic?
a living thing
eg. trees, animals, bacteria
What is abiotic?
non-living things
eg. clouds, rocks, soil
What is niche?
the role of an organism
What are the parts of a food chain?
Producer -> primary consumer -> secondary consumer -> tertiary consumer-> decomposer
What is an example of a decomposer?
fungi and bacteria. breaks down material and returns the nutrients to the soil
What is a trophic level?
when the biomass gets smaller
How is some biomass lost?
Not all of the ingested material is used
A lot of the glucose is used in respiration with the h20 and c02
What is a producer?
something that converts energy from sunlight into sugar. eg. plants via photosynthesis
What is a consumer?
something that gets energy from eating the producer or another consumer
What is a food web?
something that shows alll the connections between producers and consumers in a more complex way than a food chain
What is the nutrient cycle?
The never-ending cycle of
biomass -> litter -> soil
Where is Epping forest?
east of london, england
How many trees were lost in the drought of 1976-77?
15 million
What is a global ecosystem
biomes with animals and plants adapted to their environment
What are the 5 biomes?
hint- p, d, g, t, t
polar, desert, grassland, temperate forest, tropical rainforest
What are the 4 layers of the tropical rainforest?
emergents, canopy, under canopy, shrub layer
What is the humus?
The top layer of soil
What is the emergents?
huge trees, up to 50m
lots of sun, strong winds , at the top
What is the canopy?
60-90 feet trees, covered with vines and plants
some sunlight
quite bright
What is the under-canopy?
relatively open, young trees, plants, receive 2-15% of the sunlight
What is the shrub layer?
receives under 2% of the sunlight
little grows, low rainfall
where decomposition occurs
What is latosol?
An infertile, iron rich soil left after the nutrients have been leached away
Name some plant features adapted to the rainforest
Red leaves- reflect sunlight while the leaf is young
Buttress roots,m thin bark, drip tips
