Textbook: Chapter 21 - Ecosystem Energetics Flashcards
Assimilation efficiency
Ratio of assimilation to ingestion; a measure of efficiency with which a consumer extracts energy from food.
Compensation depth
In aquatic ecosystems, the depth of the water column at which light intensity reaching plants is just sufficient for the rate of photosynthesis to balance the rate of respiration
Consumption efficiency
Ratio of ingestion to production or energy available; defines the amount of available energy being consumed
Endothermic reaction
Chemical reaction that gains energy from the environment
Entropy
Transformation of matter and energy to a more random, more disorganized state
Exothermic reaction
Chemical reaction that releases heat to the environment
First law of thermodynamics
Energy is neither created nor destroyed; in any transfer or transformation, no gain or loss of total energy occurs
Gross primary production
Energy fixed per unit area by photosynthetic activity of plants before respiration; total energy flow at the secondary level is nor gross prodcution, but rather assimilation, because consumers use material already produced with respiratory losses
Kinetic energy
Energy associated with motion; performs work at the expense of potential energy
Net primary productivity (NPP)
The ratio of energy storage as organic matter after respiration
Production efficiency
The ratio of production to assimilation; a measure of the efficiency of a consumer to cincorporate assimilated energy into secondayr production
Potential energy
Energy available to do work
Standing crop biomass
Total amount of biomass per unit area at a given time
Secondary productivity
Rate at which hetereotophs produce biomass per unti area per unit time
Secondary production
Production by consumer organisms over time
