Topic 1 - Earth Systems Flashcards
Earth's Spheres, Food Webs/Chains, Plant Life Cycle
Abiotic
Non-living things in the environment.
Atmosphere
The envelope of gasses that surround the Earth.
Bio
Means life, or living.
Biosphere
Sum of all ecosystems on Earth.
Biotic
Living thins in the environment.
Crust
Made up of valleys, trenches, mountains and volcanoes, and composed of tectonic plates.
Cryosphere
Solid form of water, includes glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets and icebergs.
Greenhouse Gas
- Carbon Dioxide
- Methane
- Nitrous Oxide
- Ozone
Groundwater
Water that is found underground.
Lithosphere
The solid, outer part of the Earth, including the crust and upper mantle.
Mesosphere
Where meteors are found.
Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water
Stratosphere
Composed of ozone
Tectonic Plate
Large sections of the Earth’s crust that shift over time.
Turbidity
Particles in the water.
Thermosphere
Where satellites and space shuttles are found.
Troposphere
Composed of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide.
Upper Mantle
Extends from below the crust to 410km towards earth’s core, and composed of mostly silicon, oxygen, magnesium, and flowing.
Water Vapour
Gas forms of water.
Food Chain
Shows movement of energy from one trophic level to another in an ecosystem.
Food Web
Shows the movement of energy and many interactions within an ecosystem.
Herbivore
Only eats plants.
Carnivore
Only eats meat.
Omnivore
Eats both plants and meat.
Producer
An organism that can produce/create their own energy. (plants)
Consumer
Needs to consume or eat other consumers and producers to gain energy.
Decomposer
Responsible for breaking down dead/decaying organisms to return nutrients to ecosystem.
Trophic Levels
The level an organism is found on a food web/chain.
Primary Consumer
An organism that eats plants and provides the energy needed for other types of consumers to use.
Secondary Consumer
The organisms that eat the primary consumers.
Tertiary Consumer
Tertiary consumers are animals that consume the secondary consumers to obtain nutrition from them.
Quaternary Consumer
An animal that consumes at the very top of the food chain, after the tertiary consumer.
Ecological Pyramid
A graphical representation of the relationship between the different living organisms at different trophic levels.
Energy Pyramid
A model that shows the flow of energy from one trophic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem.
Pyramid of Numbers
Shows the total number of individual organisms at each level in the food chain of an ecosystem.
Biomass
Renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals.
Biomass Pyramid
Is the representation of total living biomass or organic matter present at different trophic levels in an ecosystem.
10% Rule
Only 10% of energy is moved up per trophic level.
Germination
The start of growth of a plant from a seed.
Seedling formation
The seed starts growing towards sunlight when it gets the proper nutrients from the sun as well from the roots.
Growth & Development
Plants carry out a process called photosynthesis using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to synthesize their own food in the form glucose.
Differentiation
Plants become a mature plant and starts flowering.
Pollination
When pollen travels from one plant to the flower of another plant.
Fertilisation
When the pollen meets the egg inside the flower, this creates seeds.
Formation of Fruit & Seeds
After fertilisation, the ovary of the flower starts to grow and change into some fruit. Inside the fruit, the seeds develop. When the fruit is ripe, it’s like a signal for the seeds to be dispersed.
