Unit 1 - Ecosystems Flashcards
What are the two types of aquatic biomes?
Fresh Water
Salt Water
What two factors determine a terrestrial biome?
Temperature
Rainfall
What are the key characteristics of a Desert?
Hot
Dry
NPP: 10
What are the key characteristics of a Savanna?
Hot
Wet spring, dry winter
NPP: 700
What are the key characteristics of a Shrubland?
Hot summer, cold winter
Dry summer, wet winter
NPP: 600
What are the key characteristics of a Taiga (Boreal Forest)?
Mild summer, cold winter
Low precipitation
NPP: 800
What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Grassland?
Warm to hot summer, cold winter
Low precipitation
NPP: 500
What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Rainforest?
Mild temp year-round
Dry summer, wet rest of year
NPP: 1300
What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Deciduous Rainforest?
mild year-round,
mild precipitation year-round
What are the key characteristics of a Chapparal?
Hot year round
Small levels of precipitation in the winter
What are the key characteristics of a Tropical Rainforest?
hot
rainy
NPP: 2000
What are the key characteristics of a Tundra?
Cold
Low rainfall
NPP: 200
What are the key characteristics of a coral reef?
Earth’s most diverse marine biome
photosynthetic algae in the tissue of coral
What are the key characteristics of the open ocean?
Photic zone: where sunlight penetrates and photosynthesis can happen
Aphotic zone: where sunlight cannot penetrate and photosynthesis cannot happen
Benthic zone: the ocean floor
What are the key characteristics of a salt marsh/estuary?
mixing of salt and fresh water (Brackish water)
What are the key characteristics of a pond/freshwater lake?
standing freshwater
What are the key characteristics of streams and rivers?
flowing freshwater
threatened by excess nutrients and pollutants
What are the key characteristics of a wetland (swamp, marsh, bog)?
highest productivity (GPP) - most photosynthesis
reduces the severity of floods
filters pollutants
recharge groundwater (prevents droughts)
What is mutualism?
Both species in the interaction benefit
- clownfish x sea anemone
what is commensalism?
One benefits while the other is unharmed
- shark x remora
what is parsitism?
One benefits while the other is harmed
- humans x tapeworms
what is resource partitioning?
the division of resources to avoid competition
morphological: bodily difference = different food source
spatial: occupy different spaces within the same habitat
temporal: same food source but are active at different times
what is intraspecific competition?
competition between members of the same species
what is interspecific competition?
competition between members of different species
what is the total energy created by producers called?
Gross primary productivity (GPP)
what is the amount of energy available to the different trophic levels called?
Net primary productivity (NPP)
what is the equation for finding NPP?
NPP = GPP - R
what is deamination?
the process of turning NO3 in the soil into NH4 during death/decay (from decomposers)
what is denitrification?
the process of converting NO3 (nitrates) into atmospheric nitrogen (N2) using denitrifying bacteria
what is nitrification?
the process of turning NH3 or NH4 (ammonia) into NO2 (nitrites) and then into NO3 (nitrates). (each step is possible through nitrifying bacteria)
what is nitrogen fixation?
the process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into NO3 (Nitrates) through lightning and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes
what major region does the phosphorus cycle not go through?
the atmosphere
what are storages for phosphorus?
soils and the ocean
how does phosphorus in the soil end up in water?
leaching
how does mined phosphorus end up in the soil and ocean?
fertilizers and detergents
what process must occur to make rock phosphorus available to plants?
weathering
what are two ways carbon leaves the atmosphere?
photosynthesis from plants
CO2 dissolving into the ocean when it meets the air
what process do all living organisms conduct that releases CO2 into the atmosphere?
cellular respiration
how are fossil fuels created?
organism waste and remails can be compounded into sedimentary rock and turned into fossil fuels over millions of years
what is the burning of fossil fuels called?
combustion
what is transpiration?
the process in which plants release water vapor into the atmosphere
what is percolation?
the process in which water moves downwards through soil from gravity
how can precipitation end up in the ocean?
surface run-off
where is the majority of the Earth’s Nitrogen found?
the atmosphere
