Unit 2 Test Review Flashcards
what is photosynthesis
when plants use sunlight to creat glucose
what is respiration
when organisms release energy from food molecules and CO2 is released
what is a sink in regard to the carbon cycle
long term reservoir of carbon
how do humans impact the carbon cycle
by burning fossil fuels
what is added to the atmoshphere as a result of combustion
greenhouse gasses
which cycle has the most immediate affect on acid precipitation
sulfur cycle
what is the process that adds phosphorus to aquatic ecosystems, causing dead zones
eutrophication
what is the step in the nitrogen cycle where nitrogen gas is converted into ammonia by bacteria
nitrogen fixation
what is the step in the nitrogen cycle that converts ammonium ions into nitrite and nitrates
nitrification
what is the step in the nitrogen cycle where bacteria converts nitrates back into nitrogen gas
denitrification
what is a water table
the upper limit of groundwater
what is an aquifer
layers of rock and soil that hold ground water
if an energy source is 20% efficient, what happens to the other 80 percent
it is converted to heat
T or F: Trophic Cascade has a positive correlation among trophic levels
true
what is a positive feed back loop
when a system is driven towards an extreme
what is the law that states that total entropy of an isolated system always increases over time
second law of thermodynamics
what are chemosynthetic bacteria classified as
producers
how much energy aailable from the suns rays hitting the Earth is captured by producers
1%
what biome is characterized as having permafrost
tundra
If 10,000 Joules of energy is available in the first trophic level of an ecosystem, how much energy, in Joules, is available to tertiary consumers?
10 Joules
what kind of diet would support a larger number of people for the same amount of land
a plant based diet
Which group of organisms performs photosynthesis or chemosynthesis?
autotrophs
what is each step in a food chain or web called
trophic level
what law states that energy cant be created or destroyed
first law of thermodynamics
what suggests that plant growth is limited by the energy that is availale to plants
Primary Productivity Hypothesis
what is a population
members of the same species living in the same place at the same time
what is a taiga
forests of cold climates high latitudes and high elevations
what is a tropical rainforest
high biodiversity: massive trees and warm all year
what is a savanna described as
warm year round- prolonged dry seasons, scattered trees, large grazing animals
what is a tundra described as
low biodiversity, fragile ecosystem, long cold winters and permafrost
what is a organisms
an individual living things
what is a biotic fator
living or once living parts of an ecosystem
what is an abiotic facotr
non living parts of an ecosystem
what isa a community
many species that interact int he same environmetn
After a severe drought, ecosystem X took 2 years to recover, but ecosystem Y took 10 years to recover. From this information, one may assume that ecosystem Y…
has a low resilience
According to the Trophic Cascade Model, what would happen to the balsam fir (producer) and moose (herbivore) populations on Isle Royale if human hunting of wolves doubled?
fir would decrease, moose increase
The net annual primary productivity of a particular wetland ecosystem is found to be 8,000 kcal/m2 per year. If respiration by the aquatic producers is 12,000 kcal/m2 per year, what is the gross annual primary productivity for this ecosystem, in kcal/m2 per year?
20,000
what are two examples of carbon sinks
forests and oceans
what is a process that indirectly removes carbon from the atmosphere
formation of carbonate deposits
Traveling southward from the Arctic regions of Canada to the tropics of Panama, one passes through several biomes - tundra, coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, and tropical rain forest. This pattern of change in vegetation is primarily the result of
an increase in both mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation
In a typical forest ecosystem, dead trees and fallen trees are most important because of their role in which of the following? (ecological benefit, not economic)
providing habitats for wildlife
dissolved oxygen is decreased by the breakdown of what
organic waste
what is it called when Nitrate ions and nitrite ions are converted into nitrous oxide gas and nitrogen gas (N2)
denitrification
Losses of usable energy between successive trophic levels in an ecosystem are best accounted for by
the second law of thermodynamics
The graph above has a “zig-zag” appearance. The annula fluctuation in carbon dioxide concentration can best be explained by the
seasonal photosynthetic activity of green plants
what is it called when ammonia is converted to nitrites then to nitrates
nitrification
