Topic 1 Flashcards
The study of the relationship between organisms and their environment, and the balances between these relationship.
Ecology
Ecology derived from Greek words:
OIKOS and LOGOS
OIKOS meaning ____
Home
LOGOS meaning ____
Study
the scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with each other and with their natural environment
Ecology
being aware of the natural environment and making choices that benefit the earth, rather than hurt it.
Environmental Awareness
The study of interaction of man with the natural environment.
Environmental science
Function of Ecosystem
- Habitat Function
- Production Function
- Regulatory Function
- Informational Function
ecosystem regulates essential ecological processes and life support systems and renders stability.
Regulatory Function
Responsible for cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic components
Regulatory Function
Also, it provides many services that have direct and indirect benefits to humans
Regulatory Function
ecosystems provide an essential ‘reference function’ and contribute to the maintenance of human health by providing opportunities for spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation and aesthetic experience.
Informational Function
Structure of ecosystem
Biotic and abiotic
This refers to large life-forms such as trees or mammals, small life-forms such as insects and algae, and microscopic life-forms such as bacteria.
Biotic
Autotrophs derived from Greek words:
Autos and trophe
Autos meaning _____
Self
Trophe meaning _____
Nourishment
organisms which are able to manufacture organic compounds from inorganic substances from their environment.
Producer
Heterotrophs derived from Greek words ____
Heteros and Trophe
Hetero meaning ____
Another/Different
Trophe meaning _____
Nourishment
an organism that cannot synthesize their own food and must obtain it ready made.
Heterotroph
Also known as primary consumers
Herbivores
have special digestive systems that let them digest all kinds of plants, including grasses.
Herbivores
generally eat herbivores (secondary consumers), but occasionally eat other carnivores also (tertiary consumers).
Carnivores
an organism that hunts and kills other organisms for food.
Predators
eat the food that has been killed and left behind by predators.
Scavengers
are opportunistic, general feeders with neither carnivore nor herbivore specializations for acquiring or processing food, and are capable of consuming and do consume both animal protein and vegetation.
Omnivores
Consume dead organic material such as carcasses, fallen leaves, dead plants, animal droppings and shed skins. Having consumed the material, the organism then excretes or egests waste.
Detritivores
Ingest fragments of dead organisms and their cast-off parts and organic waste.
Detritus Feeders
Do not ingest dead tissue or waste; rather they absorb and endocytose the soluble nutrients at the cellular level.
Decomposers
These are micro-organisms which break-down organic matter into inorganic compounds and derive their nutrition in the process.
Decomposers
break down complex compound into simpler compounds without eating them
Decomposers
a nonliving condition or thing, such as climate or habitat, that influences or affects an ecosystem and the organisms in it
Abiotic
It determine which species of organisms will survive in a given environment.
Abiotic
Sunlight, water, air, temperature, rainfall, soil texture, wind speed and direction,, etc. this is example of what component
Physical components
Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, iron, copper, zinc, etc.This is a example of what component
Chemical components
Refers to the processes that link the different structural elements together.
Ecosystem Function
The chain of the reaction during which cells release the chemical-bond energy and convert into other usable forms,
Cellular respiration
also known as the law of conservation of energy,, states that the total amount of energy in all its forms remains constant.
First law of Thermodynamics
states that every time energy is transformed, it tends to go from a more organized and concentrated form to a less organized or more dispersed forms, It is also known as the law of degradation of energy quality.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
It refers to the transfer of food energy from the source through the series of organisms, in a process of sequential or repeated eating and being eaten.
Food chain
Refers to the interconnected and interlocking relationships among various food chains in an ecosystem
Food webs
Shows how the amount of available energy decreases at each succeeding trophic level.
The energy of pyramid
The total amount of matter present in organisms of an ecosystem at each trophic level is biomass.
Pyramid of Biomass
the total amount of living or organic matter in an ecosystem at any time
Biomass
a graphical representation of the numbers of individuals in each population in a food chain.
Pyramid of numbers
It can be used to examine how the population of a certain species affects another.
Pyramid of numbers
Elements and inorganic compounds that sustain life tend to circulate in the earth’s biosphere in regular paths from the atmosphere to the lithosphere or hydrosphere into living things and then back into this environment
Biogeochemical cycles
Involves the continuous circulation of water in the Earth-Atmosphere system.
Hydrologic cycle
the process that moves carbon between plants, animals, and microbes; minerals in the earth; and the atmosphere.
Carbon cycle
the fourth most abundant element in the universe.
Carbon
Process through which nitrogen is converted into many forms, consecutively passing from the atmosphere to the soil to organism and back into the atmosphere.
Nitrogen cycle
Types of Nitrogen Fixation
- Atmospheric fixation
- Industrial nitrogen fixation:
- Biological nitrogen fixation:
A natural phenomenon where the energy of lightning breaks the nitrogen into nitrogen oxides, which are then used by plants.
Atmospheric fixation
It is a man-made alternative that aids in nitrogen fixation by the use of ammonia. Ammonia is produced by the direct combination of nitrogen and hydrogen.
Industrial nitrogen fixation
These nitrogen compounds get fixed in the soil by these microbes.
Biological nitrogen fixation
In this process, the ammonia is converted into nitrate by the presence of bacteria in the soil.
Nitrification
plants takein the nitrogen compounds from the soil with the help of their roots, which are available in the form of ammonia, nitrite ions, nitrate ions or ammonium ions and are used in the formation of the plant and animal proteins.
Primary producers
This process of decompositionproduces ammonia, which is further used for other biological processes.
Ammonification
This process of the nitrogen cycle is the final stage and occursin the absence of oxygen.
Denitrification
the process in which thenitrogen compounds make their way back into the atmosphere byconverting nitrate (NO3-) into gaseous nitrogen (N).
Denitrification
The biogeochemical cycle that describes the transformation and translocation of phosphorus in soil, water, and living and dead organic material.
Phosphorus cycle
A group of organisms that are capable of breeding with each other under natural conditions
Species
group of organisms of the same species that occupy a particular area over a given interval of time.
Population
Populations of various species living in the same area, representing a large no. of connections and needs are referred as community
Community
It is a self sustaining structural and functional unit of the biosphere.
Ecosystems
The portion of earth that supports life
Biosphere
It consists of the variety of living organisms, having the genetic differences between them and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur.
Biodiversity
