Stage 2 Flashcards
Ecology
Scientific study of the interactions that occur among the organisms in the biosphere and among the organisms and their physical environment.
The biosphere contains …
All life on earth along with all the parts in which life exist. It extends for about 8 kilometers above the earth’s surface and 11 kilometers below the surface of the ocean.
Root of ecology
Greek oikos. House.
Root of the word economics
Oikos also.
Economy is
Concerned with human “houses” and human interactions based on money or trade.
Interactions amount nature’s houses are based on
Energy and nutrients.
Human economics and ecology are linked because …
Humans live within the biosphere and depend on ecological process to provide such a essential as food and drinkable water that can be bought and sold or traded.
Levels of organization (smallest to biggest)
Individual organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere.
Species
Group of similar organism which can breed and produce fertile offsprings.
Population
Group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area.
Community
Assemblage of different populations that live together in a defined area.
Ecosystem
All the organisms that live in a place, together with their physical environment.
Biome
Group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organism.
Biosphere
Entire planet along with its organisms and physical environments.
Environment
Word used by ecologist to refer to all conditions or fatso that surround and organism.
Type of factors in an environment
Biotic and abiotic
Biotic factors
Biological influences on organisms; any living part of the environment with which an organism can interact (animals, plants, mushrooms, bacteria)
Abiotic factor
Physical components of an ecosystem; any non living part of the environment (sunlight, heat, precipitation, humidity, wind or water currents, type of soil, etc.).
Modern scientist us three methods in their work that relay on scientific methodology to guide inquiry. This are?
Observation, modeling and experimentation.
Observation
First step in asking ecological questions, or may form the fist step in designing experiments or models. They can be simple or complex (they are in the form or questions).
Experimentation
Experiments are used to test hypothesis, they carefully alter conditions in selected parts of natural ecosystems or use an artificial environment.
How do living systems operate?
By expending energy.
Autotrophs
Organisms which can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and convert it into forms that living things can use. They produce food by assembling inorganic molecules into complex organic molecules. They store energy in forms that maki it available go other organism that est them. Also called primary producers.
Primary producers are …
The first producers of energy rich compounds that are later used by other organisms. They are essential to the glow of energy though the biosphere.
Root of autotroph
Prefix auto (by itself) and Greek word trophikos (to feed). Self feeder.
Photosynthesis
Process by which organism capture light energy and use it to power chemical reactions that convert CO2 and H2O into O2 and energy-rich carbohydrates such as sugars and starches. It adds oxygen to the atmosphere and removes CO2.
Chemosynthesis
Process in which chemical energy (obtained from inorganic molecules like Hydrogen Sulfide) is used to produce carbohydrates. Reactants= CO2, O2 and Hydrogen Sulfide, products= carbohydrates and sulfur compounds. If can occur in ten deep sea or in harsh environments (deep sea volcanic vents or hot springs).
Heterotrophs
Organisms that just acquire energy from other organism (by ingesting them one way or another). They’re also called consumers.
Consumers
Organisms that rely on other organisms for energy and nutrients.
Types of consumers
Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, scavengers, detritivores and decomposers
Carnivores
Animals that kill and ear other animals.
Herbivores
They obtain energy and nutrients by eating plants, leaves, roots, seeds or fruits.
Omnivores
Animals hose diets include a variety of different foods, like both plants and animals.
Scavengers
Animals that consume the carcasses of other animals that have been killed by a predator or have died of other causes
Decomposers
They feed by chemically breaking down organic matter and produce detritus particles.
Detritus particles
Small pieces of dead and decaying organic matter.
Detitivores
They feed on detritus particles, often with chewing or grinding them into even smaller pieces. They commonly digest decomposed there live on or in the detritus particles.
Primary producers and consumers are linked though
Feeding relationships
How does energy flows through and ecosystem?
Energy flows through an ecosystem in a one way stream, from primary producers to various consumers.
Food chain
A series of steps in which in organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten.
Primary producers in aquatic food chains
Phytoplankton and algae.
Food web
A network of feeding interactions which shows all the possible paths thought which the energy can pass. It is as if you linked together all the food chains in an ecosystem.
Each path of the food web is a …
Food chain.
Detritus pathway
Decomposes p convert dead material into detritus.
Decomposition process
It releases nutrients that can be used by primary producers. It recycles nutrients in food webs (the decomposers).
What would happen without decomposers?
Nutrients would remain locked within dead organisms.
Plankton are composed of
Zooplankton and phytoplankton
Zooplankton feed of …
Marine algae
The krill larvae feed on
Algae that lives beneath floating sea ice.
Tropic level
Each step in a food chain or web.
Always make up the first tropic level
Primary producers.
Ecological pyramids.
One way of illustrating the tropic levels in an ecosystem. They show the relative amount of energy or matter that is contained within each tropic level in a given food chain or web.
Type of ecological pyramids
Pyramids of energy, pyramids of biomass and pyramids of numbers.
Pyramids of energy
Show the relative amount of energy available at each tropic level of a food chain or food web.
What happens to the energy after it passes form one tropic level tot th next?
Only a small part (approximately 10%) is stored in the body of the organism, the rest is expended on life processes or is release into the environment as heat.
What happens if you have more levels between the primary producer and a given consumer?
It will obtain a smaller percentage of the energy if you have more levels between them than if you have a small number.
Biomass
The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level. It is usually measured in grams of organic matter ore unit area.
The amount of biomass a given tropic lever can support is determined by
the amount of energy available.
A pyramid of biomass
Illustrates the relative amount of living organic matter available at each torphic level in an ecosystem.
Pyramid of numbers
Shows the relative number of individual organisms is present at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
The only type of pyramid in which the levels can be turned upside down is
Pyramid of number
