Module 2 Flashcards
What are the 3 sections of the biosphere and what is it?
Biosphere- the portion of earth that supports life
Lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere
Define biome:
A large group of ecosystems that share same climate
Define ecosystem:
Biological community and all the abiotic factors that affect it
Define community:
A group of interacting populations (biological community)
Define population:
Organisms of the same species that share the same location
Define organism:
An individual living thing, lowest level of this organization
What does “buzzing bees emptying cartons poop out” stand for?
Biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community, population, organism
How do abiotic factors impact biotic factors?
Abiotic factors impact biotic factors by controlling their ability to survive.
What is a niche?
A role/position that an organism holds in its environment
What is the zone of tolerance’s middle conditions (can survive, but not ideal)?
Zone of physiological stress
Define ecology:
The study of relationships and interactions between organisms with their environments
What are autotrophs also called?
Primary producers
What is a food chain?
A model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem
What is a food web?
A model representing the many interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy flows through a group of organisms
What are trophic levels and are organisms stuck in them permanently?
Traffic levels are the position in organism occupies in a food web, and they are not stuck permanently because they can move around between levels as animals or plants are consumed or consume other organisms.
What are types of ecological pyramids and what do they show?
The pyramid of numbers shows the numbers of individual organisms that exist in each level
The pyramid of biomass shows the amount of living tissue or the total mass of organisms
The pyramid of energy shows how much energy found within each trophic level
What happens in the water cycle?
Precipitation – water falls from atmosphere to earth
Runoff – water flows over land as surface water
Transpiration – plants absorb this water, and it evaporates into the atmosphere
Evaporation – liquid water from oceans and lakes, turns into water vapor
Condensation – water vapor turns into liquid water, and back into the atmosphere
What happens in the carbon/oxygen cycle?
Combustion – the burning of carbon/fossil fuels releases as carbon dioxide into atmosphere
Photosynthesis – plants convert carbon dioxide to biomass through this and it returns to atmosphere After respiration
Respiration – the process of breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide
Decomposers – these break down the producers and consumers involved in this cycle
Fossil fuel formation – decayed plant/animals turn into oil, natural gas or cold overtime and are buried under layers of rock
What happens in the nitrogen cycle?
Nitrogen fixation – nitrogen fixing bacteria convert nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into a form that plants can consume
Consumption – animals consume plants to receive nitrogen
Decomposition – after animals produce waste from plants, decomposers break it down and release the nitrogen into the soil in the form of ammonium
Denitrification – bacteria in the soil convert the ammonium into nitrates, and back into nitrogen gas, which goes into the atmosphere
What happens in the phosphorus cycle?
Erosion – rocks erode, moving phosphorus containing rocks from land to water and soil
Consumption – plants take up phosphate from the soil/water – animals consume them
Decomposition – decomposers to eat their waste and the phosphorus goes back into the soil/water
Sedimentation – once phosphorus ends up in the ocean from the soil or water it will settle to the bottom and become bound to sediment
What is the biogeochemical cycle?
The movement of nutrients between biotic and abiotic factors (through an environment).
