Unit 1

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

All living and nonliving things in an area

Question 2

Parisitoid

Answer 2

lays eggs inside a host organism; eggs hatch and larva eat host for energy.

Question 3

Parasite

Answer 3

use a host organism for energy, often living inside the host without killing it

Question 4

Symbiosis

Answer 4

Any close or long term interaction between two organisms of different species

Question 5

Resource Partitioning

Answer 5

different species using the same resource in different ways to reduce competition.

Question 6

Three types of resource partitioning

Answer 6

Temporal Partitioning, Spatial Partitioning, Morphological Partitioning,

Question 7

Temporal Partitioning

Answer 7

using resources at different times (day vs. night)

Question 8

Spatial Partitioning

Answer 8

Using different areas of a shared habitat (different plants having different lengths of roots)

Question 9

Morphological Partitioning

Answer 9

using different resources based on different evolved body features (Different flowers, different shaped bird beaks)

Question 10

Biome

Answer 10

An area that shares average yearly temp. and precipitation

Question 11

4 characteristics of aquatic biomes

Answer 11

Salinity, depth, flow, temperature

Question 12

4 levels of a lake

Answer 12

Littoral: shallow water w/ emerging plants
Limnetic: where light can reach (photosynthesis)
Profundal: to deep for sunlight to reach (no photosynthesis).
Benthic: Murkey bottom where invertebrates live, nutrient rich sediments

Question 13

Freshwater Wetlands

Answer 13

area with soil saturated for at least part of the year
benefits:
-stores excess water during storm
-filters pollutants from water
-high productivity (plant growth)

Question 14

Estuaries

Answer 14

areas where rivers empty into oceans, high productivity due to nutrients in the sediment deposits from the river.

Question 15

Intertidal zones

Answer 15

narrow bands of coastline between low and high tide

Question 16

Open ocean productivity:

Answer 16

Least productive ecosystem per square meter
Most productive ecosystem overall, produces a lot of earths oxygen and absorbs a lot of atmospheric CO2s.

Question 17

Carbon Sink

Answer 17

A carbon reservoir that stores more carbon than it releases (oceans, plants, soil)

Question 18

Carbon Source

Answer 18

processes that add C to the atmosphere (fossil fuel, animal agriculture, deforestation)

Question 19

Direct Exchange

Answer 19

CO2 moving directly between the atmosphere and the ocean

Question 20

Sedimentation

Answer 20

when marine organisms die and their bodies sink to the ocean floor where they are broken down into sediments that contain C

Question 21

Burial

Answer 21

over long periods of time pressure of water compresses C containing sediments into sedimentary stone and fossil fuel.

Question 22

Do Nitrogen reservoirs hold nitrogen for longer or shorter periods of time than carbon reservoirs?

Answer 22

Nitrogen reservoirs hold nitrogen for shorter periods of time. The nitrogen cycle is the fastest. cycle

Question 23

what is the main nitrogen reservoir

Answer 23

the atmosphere

Question 24

Nitrogen fixation

Answer 24

the process of N2 gas being converted into biologically usable NH3 (ammonia) and NO3 (nitrite)

Question 25

2 types of nitrogen fixation are:

Answer 25

Bacterial Fixation- when bacteria that live in the soil covert N2 into ammonia
Synthetic Fixation- humans combust fossil fuels to convert N2 gas into nitrites, then nitrates then add them to to synthetic ferilizers

Question 26

Assimilation

Answer 26

plants and animals taking N in and incorporating it into their bodies

Question 27

Ammonification

Answer 27

soil bacteria converting waste/dead organisms back into ammonia and returning it to the soil.

Question 28

nitrificatin

Answer 28

Conversion of ammonia into nitrite, then nitrate by the soil bacteria

Question 29

denitrification

Answer 29

conversion of soil nitrogen into nitrogen gas to go back into the atmosphere

Question 30

Ammonia volatilization

Answer 30

excess fertilizer use leading to NH3 gas entering the atmosphere.
NH3 gas in atmosphere=acid rain

Question 31

What is the slowest cycle?

Answer 31

the phosphorus cycle

Question 32

Weathering

Answer 32

the breaking down of rock

Question 33

erosion

Answer 33

the shifting of sediments

Question 34

Geologic uplift

Answer 34

tectonic plate collision forcing rock upwards to form mountains

Question 35

Excess of what nutrients leads to eutrophication?

Answer 35

Nitrogen and phosphorus

Question 36

the more productive a biome is , the higher the ___________

Answer 36

biodiversity

Question 37

Net Primary Productivity

Answer 37

the amount of energy (biomass) leftover for consumers after plants have used some for respiration

Question 38

1st law of thermodynamics

Answer 38

energy is never created or destroyed

Question 39

2nd law of thermodynamics

Answer 39

each time energy is transferred some of it is lost as heat.

Question 40

Primary Productivity

Answer 40

the rate that solar energy is transformed into organic compounds via photosynthesis over a unit of time.

Question 41

Unit Primary productivity is measured in:

Answer 41

Kcal/m2/year

Question 42

Respiration loss

Answer 42

the energy that plants use by doing cellular respiration

Question 43

Gross Primary Productivity

Answer 43

the total amount of sun energy that plants capture and convert to glucose

Question 44

Formula for NPP

Answer 44

NPP=GPP-RL

Question 45

Trophic Cascade

Answer 45

removal or addition of a top predator that has a ripple effect down the pyramid.