🌳 The Living World Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
A community where rocks, soil, vegetation, animals, humans, water, the atmosphere and climate all interact
What is an ecosystem made up of?
Biotic and abiotic things
What does biotic mean?
Living
What does abiotic mean?
Non-living
How do ecosystems work?
Has specific animal and plant life. Any change in the ecosystem disrupts the fine balance
What are nutrients?
Foods that are used by plants or animals to grow such as nitrogen and potassium. Their energy is passed along the food chain
How does energy enter and leave the ecosystems?
Enter: sun
Leaves: consumers dying and decomposing
What is the source of mineral nutrients that plants need?
Rocks weathered by climate or decomposing consumers
How do mineral nutrients leave the system?
Washed away by water
What is an ecosystem?
The living and non-living parts of an environment and the interrelationships that exist between them.
What is a biome?
Global scale ecosystems.
What does adaptations mean?
The ways that plants evolve to cope with environmental conditions e.g. lot of rainfall.
What are producers?
Organisms that get their energy from a primary source such as the sun.
What is a consumer?
Organisms that get their energy by eating other organisms.
What is a food chain?
A line of linkages between producers and consumers.
What is a food web?
A diagram that shows all the linkages between producers and consumers in an ecosystem.
What is a scavenger?
Organisms that consume dead animals or plants.
What are decomposers?
Organisms such as bacteria that break down plant and animal material.
What is nutrient cycling?
The recycling of nutrients between living organisms and the environment.
What does a food chain show?
How each living thing gets their food
Who is at the top of the food chain?
Apex predator
What happens as you move up the food chain?
Energy is lost as heat and decomposition
What are nutrients for?
All animals rely on nutrients in food for their health and growth
What is little?
Leaves and other dead plant material on the floor
How does litter get in and out of the nutrient cycle?
Input from minerals dissolved in rainfall
Loss in run off
What is biomass?
Total amount of vegetation
How does biomass leave the nutrient cycle?
Fallout as leaves and tissues die
How does soil enter and leave the nutrient cycle?
Uptake by plants and nutrients released as litter decomposes
Loss by leaching
Who makes up the detritivore community?
Beetles, larvae, maggots, fungi, wood lice, bacteria, slugs, snails
What is the function of decomposition?
Converting dead plants and animal matter into forms that are usable for growth
What is bacteria’s main role in decomposition?
Speed up the decay process
Local change definition
Things which change a smaller habitat eg. Removal of a hedgerow
Global change definition
Changes that have a global impact such as climate change
What things can change in an ecosystem?
Loss of trees
Less primary consumers
Modern agricultural practises
Addition of invasive species or pests
Loss of producers
Loss of tertiary consumers
Lack of water input/changing climate
