Unit 10- Ecosystems, Food Chains and carbon cycle Flashcards
Ecosystem definition
- a self contained environment including living and non living factors
Habitat definition:
The place where an organism lives eg a pond
Population definition:
A group of organisms of the same species that breed together in the same habitat
Community definition
A group of populations of different species interacting in the same habitat
Niche definition
The role of an organism in a community, it includes everything with which the organism interacts
What is an autotroph
An organism that manufactures its own food
What is a heterotroph?
An organism that obtains its energy and mass from other organisms
The jackal occupies 2 trophies levels and a secondary and tertiary consumer, give 2 factors that could be a part of the niche of Jackals
Time at which it feeds and predators feeding on the jackal
What is GPP?
- gross primary productivity
- the rate at which plants fix light into biomass (kJm^-2year^-1)
What is NPP
- net primary productivity
- the rate at which energy is passed to the primary consumers (GPP-respiration)
How is energy lost in each tropic level?
- Transfer of energy to the surroundings in respiration
- inedible parts lost to organisms are broken down by decomposers
How is carbon released into the environment?
- respiration
- combustion
- decomposers
- Weathering of carbon rocks
What is a carbon neutral cell ecosystem?
One where carbon fixation and carbon release are balanced over long term
What is saprobiotic nutrition?
- secreting extracellular enzymes into dead organic matter surrounding to break down and absorb the soluble products
What is a carbon source?
An ecosystem that releases more carbon as carbon dioxide than it accumulates
