APES Readiness

How do producers capture energy?

from the sun through photosynthesis

What is a producer?

an organism that creates its own food and energy using sunlight or chemical compounds

How do consumers get energy?

From producers

How much energy transfers between trophic levels?

10%

How is most energy lost?

as heat

What is biomagnification?

inrease in pollutant concentration at higher trophic levels

What is pollutant concentration

the amount of a harmful substance found within a specific volume of air, water, or soil at a given time

What are the trophic levels

• 1st Trophic Level (Producers / Autotrophs): Organisms like plants, algae, and phytoplankton that make their own food using sunlight through photosynthesis.

• 2nd Trophic Level (Primary Consumers / Herbivores): Animals like rabbits, mice, and caterpillars that eat producers.

• 3rd Trophic Level (Secondary Consumers / Carnivores or Omnivores): Animals like snakes and spiders that eat primary consumers.

• 4th Trophic Level (Tertiary Consumers / Apex Predators): Large carnivores like hawks, wolves, and orcas that eat secondary consumers and sit at the top of the chain.

• 5th Trophic Level (Decomposers / Detritivores): Fungi, bacteria, and scavengers that break down dead material and waste, returning essential nutrients to the soil.

When do populations grow?

when resources are abundant

What are limiting factors?

An environmental condition or resource that restricts the size, growth, or distribution of a population in an ecosystem

food,water,space,predation,disease

When does exponential growth occur?

When resources are unlimited

When does logistic growth occur?

when populations approach carrying capacity

What are density dependent factors?

limiting conditions whose effects on a population's growth rate change and intensify as the population's density (crowding) increases

When do density dependent factors have the strongest effect?

as population size increases

When do density independent factos affect populations?

Always - not dependent on size

What happens as a preadator population increases?

prey populations decrease

What happens as a prey population increases?

predator populations increase

What is biodiversity?

variety of living organisms in an ecosystem

What does greater biodiversity mean?

greater ecosystem stability & greater resilience to disturbances

Mutualism

orming social bonds, grooming, or cooperative relationships with other species

interspecific

Honeybees drink nectar from flowers to make food. While doing so, pollen sticks to their bodies and transfers to other flowers, helping the plants reproduc

What is the difference between intraspecific and interspecific

intraspecific interactions or competition occur between members of the same species, whereas interspecific interactions occur between members of different species

Commensalism

a biological or symbiotic relationship where one species benefits while the other is neither helped nor harmed

Interspecific

Hermit crabs live inside empty shells left behind by dead snails. The crab gets a safe home, while the dead snail is completely unaffected

Parasitism

a biological relationship where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, and benefits at the host's expense

interspecific

Fleas and Ticks: These external parasites attach to dogs, cats, or humans to feed on blood, causing irritation and transmitting diseases like Lyme disease

Predation

a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and consumes another organism, its prey, for nutrition

interspecific

Competition

a biological interaction where organisms vie for a limited resource—such as food, water, space, or light—resulting in lower fitness or survival for at least one competitor

Lions and Hyenas: These apex predators compete directly for the same prey and steal kills from each other in the African savanna.

When does natural selection occur?

variation exists within a population

some individuals survive better than others

helpful traits are passed to offspring

the population changes over generations

Do individuals or populations evole?

Populations - INDIVIDUALS DO NOT EVOLVE

Photosynthesis

Plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen

Removes carbon dioxide from atmposphere

Cellular Respiration

• Inputs: Glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) and oxygen (O₂)

• Outputs: Carbon dioxide (CO₂), water (H₂O), and ATP energy

What does burning fossil fuels do?

Releases stored carbon

Increases atmospheric carbon dioxide

Contributes to climate change

Biotic Factors

Living components of ecostystem - plants & other animals

Aibiotic Factors

Nonliving components of ecosystem - water, sunlight, temperature

What molecule is water?

polar molecule with slightly positive and negative endss

What is water known as?

universal solvent because it dissolves many substances

What is cohesion

attraction between water molecules

What is adhesion

attraction between water molecules and other surfaces

Can ice float?

yes because it is less dense than liquid water

what does water transport?

nutrients,pollutants, and dissolved gases through ecosystems

What is a positive feedback loop

Amplifies change

what is an example of a positive feedback loop?

Trigger: The baby pushes against the cervix.

Signal: Nerves tell the brain to release the hormone oxytocin.

Amplification: Oxytocin causes the uterus to contract hard.

Result: The contractions push the baby harder against the cervix, releasing more oxytocin until the baby is born

What is a negative feedback loop?

counteracts change and promotes stability

What is an example of a negative feedback loop?

When your body temperature rises above normal, your brain triggers sweating and increased blood flow to the skin to cool you down. When it drops too low, the body shivers to generate heat.

What do carbohydrates do?

provide short-term energy

What do lipids store?

long-term energy

What do proteins do?

provide structure and function as enzymes

What do nucleic acids do?

store genetic information

What are protiens made of?

Amino Acids

What are enzymes

proteins that speed up chemical reactions

what stores the DNA?

nucleus

What is the mitochondrias job?

to produce ATP through cellular respiration

what do chloroplasts do?

perform photosynthesis

What do ribosomes do?

synthesize proteins

What are atoms?

the basic units of matter

How are molecules formed?

when atoms bond together

What are ions?

atoms/molecules with a charge

How do atoms become positive ions?

when they lose electrons

Covalent bond

sharing of electrons

Ionic Bonds

Transfering of electrons

How do hydrogen bonds form?

when a partially positive hydrogen atom is electrostatically attracted to a lone pair of electrons on a neighboring electronegative atom

polar molecules

Neutral PH

7

Acidic PH

below 7

Basic PH

Above 7

What does each whole-number change in PH represent?

a tenfold change in hydrogen ion concentration

Is matter conserved during chemical reactions?

yes

First law of thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyedSe

Second law of thermodynamis

energy transfers are inefficient because some energy is lost as heat.

Do matter and energy cycle/flow through the ecosystem?

yes

Energy

ability to do work

potential energy

stored energy

kinetic energy

energy of motion

can energy be converted between forms?

yes

Electromagnetic radiation

how the sun transfers energy to earth

Greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases absorb and re-radiate infrared radiation.

Pacific ocean

largest ocean - left of USA

Atlantic ocean

between north america and europe

Mississippi river basin

drains much of the central US

Gulf of mexico

recieves runoff from the mississippi river

Indian ocean

Bordered by Asia to the north, Africa to the west, Australia and Indonesia to the east, and Antarcti

Southern ocean

above antartica

Arctic ocean

above canada

matter

anything that occupies space and has mass

mass

a measurement of the amount of matter an object contains (different from weight)

Atoms

smallest particle that can contain the chemical properties of an element

element

a substance composed of atoms that cannot be broken down into smaller, simpler components

Molecules

a particle that contains more than one atom

Compounds

a molecule containing more than one element

What is the structure of every atom?

consists of a nucleus surrounds by electrons

what is the nucleus made up of

protons & nuetrons

what charge do protons have

positive

what charge to neutrons have

none

what charge do electrons have

negative

atomic number

number of protons in the nucleus of a particular element

What is the mass of an electron relative to a proton and neutron?

smaller

What are electrons attracted to?

protons (binds electrons to nucleus)

Neutral atom

number of prtons = number of electrons

Mass number

a measurement of the total number of protons and neutrons in an element

isotopes

atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons (determine difference causes of an element - ex: forest fires vs pollution)

Unstable ispotopes are:

radioactive

radioactive decay

spontaneous release of material from nucleus of radioactive isotopes (changes radioactive element into a new element)

half-life

time it takes for one half of an original radioactive parent atom to decay (allows scientists to determine time until an element is dangerous) (carbon dating through half life can determine when something died)