Unit 1 - Ecosystems

Question 1

What are the two types of aquatic biomes?

Answer 1

Fresh Water
Salt Water

Question 2

What two factors determine a terrestrial biome?

Answer 2

Temperature
Rainfall

Question 3

What are the key characteristics of a Desert?

Answer 3

Hot
Dry
NPP: 10

Question 4

What are the key characteristics of a Savanna?

Answer 4

Hot
Wet spring, dry winter
NPP: 700

Question 5

What are the key characteristics of a Shrubland?

Answer 5

Hot summer, cold winter
Dry summer, wet winter
NPP: 600

Question 6

What are the key characteristics of a Taiga (Boreal Forest)?

Answer 6

Mild summer, cold winter
Low precipitation
NPP: 800

Question 7

What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Grassland?

Answer 7

Warm to hot summer, cold winter
Low precipitation
NPP: 500

Question 8

What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Rainforest?

Answer 8

Mild temp year-round
Dry summer, wet rest of year
NPP: 1300

Question 9

What are the key characteristics of a Temperate Deciduous Rainforest?

Answer 9

mild year-round,
mild precipitation year-round

Question 10

What are the key characteristics of a Chapparal?

Answer 10

Hot year round
Small levels of precipitation in the winter

Question 11

What are the key characteristics of a Tropical Rainforest?

Answer 11

hot
rainy
NPP: 2000

Question 12

What are the key characteristics of a Tundra?

Answer 12

Cold
Low rainfall
NPP: 200

Question 13

What are the key characteristics of a coral reef?

Answer 13

Earth’s most diverse marine biome
photosynthetic algae in the tissue of coral

Question 14

What are the key characteristics of the open ocean?

Answer 14

Photic zone: where sunlight penetrates and photosynthesis can happen
Aphotic zone: where sunlight cannot penetrate and photosynthesis cannot happen
Benthic zone: the ocean floor

Question 15

What are the key characteristics of a salt marsh/estuary?

Answer 15

mixing of salt and fresh water (Brackish water)

Question 16

What are the key characteristics of a pond/freshwater lake?

Answer 16

standing freshwater

Question 17

What are the key characteristics of streams and rivers?

Answer 17

flowing freshwater
threatened by excess nutrients and pollutants

Question 18

What are the key characteristics of a wetland (swamp, marsh, bog)?

Answer 18

highest productivity (GPP) - most photosynthesis
reduces the severity of floods
filters pollutants
recharge groundwater (prevents droughts)

Question 19

What is mutualism?

Answer 19

Both species in the interaction benefit
- clownfish x sea anemone

Question 20

what is commensalism?

Answer 20

One benefits while the other is unharmed
- shark x remora

Question 21

what is parsitism?

Answer 21

One benefits while the other is harmed
- humans x tapeworms

Question 22

what is resource partitioning?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

what is intraspecific competition?

Answer 23

competition between members of the same species

Question 24

what is interspecific competition?

Answer 24

competition between members of different species

Question 25

what is the total energy created by producers called?

Answer 25

Gross primary productivity (GPP)

Question 26

what is the amount of energy available to the different trophic levels called?

Answer 26

Net primary productivity (NPP)

Question 27

what is the equation for finding NPP?

Answer 27

NPP = GPP - R

Question 28

what is deamination?

Answer 28

the process of turning NO3 in the soil into NH4 during death/decay (from decomposers)

Question 29

what is denitrification?

Answer 29

the process of converting NO3 (nitrates) into atmospheric nitrogen (N2) using denitrifying bacteria

Question 30

what is nitrification?

Answer 30

the process of turning NH3 or NH4 (ammonia) into NO2 (nitrites) and then into NO3 (nitrates). (each step is possible through nitrifying bacteria)

Question 31

what is nitrogen fixation?

Answer 31

the process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into NO3 (Nitrates) through lightning and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes

Question 32

what major region does the phosphorus cycle not go through?

Answer 32

the atmosphere

Question 33

what are storages for phosphorus?

Answer 33

soils and the ocean

Question 34

how does phosphorus in the soil end up in water?

Answer 34

leaching

Question 35

how does mined phosphorus end up in the soil and ocean?

Answer 35

fertilizers and detergents

Question 36

what process must occur to make rock phosphorus available to plants?

Answer 36

weathering

Question 37

what are two ways carbon leaves the atmosphere?

Answer 37

photosynthesis from plants CO2 dissolving into the ocean when it meets the air

Question 38

what process do all living organisms conduct that releases CO2 into the atmosphere?

Answer 38

cellular respiration

Question 39

how are fossil fuels created?

Answer 39

organism waste and remails can be compounded into sedimentary rock and turned into fossil fuels over millions of years

Question 40

what is the burning of fossil fuels called?

Answer 40

combustion

Question 41

what is transpiration?

Answer 41

the process in which plants release water vapor into the atmosphere

Question 42

what is percolation?

Answer 42

the process in which water moves downwards through soil from gravity

Question 43

how can precipitation end up in the ocean?

Answer 43

surface run-off

Question 44

where is the majority of the Earth's Nitrogen found?

Answer 44

the atmosphere