Unit 1-The Living World: Ecosystems

Barrier Islands

Long, thin, low offshore islands of sediment that generally run parallel to the shore along some coasts. Protect against severe weather.

Biomass

A measure of the total dry mass of organisms within a particular region.

Biome

A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and plan communities.

Condensation

The change of state from a gas to a liquid.

Coral Reef

The most diverse marine biome on Earth. Found in warm, shallow waters beyond the shoreline. Only found in waters 18-30 degrees Celsius.

Zooplankton

Small floating or weakly swimming organisms that drift with water currents.

Phytoplankton

Photosynthetic, free-floating microscopic organisms that live in both marine and freshwater environments.

Abiotic

Nonliving

Algal Bloom

A rapid increase in the algal population of a waterway.

Ammonification

The process by which fungal and bacterial decomposers break down the organic nitrogen found in dead bodies and waste products and convert it into inorganic ammonium (NH4+).

Anoxic

Depleted of oxygen.

Assimilation

The process by which producers incorporate elements into their tissues.

Autotrophs

Refers to plants, algae, and other organisms that use the Sun's energy to produce usable forms of energy, also called producers.

Biogeochemical Cycle

The movements of matter within and between ecosystems.

Biotic

Living.

Carbon Cycle

The movement of carbon around the biosphere.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats other consumers (animals that eat other animals).

Cellular Respiration

Is a process by which organisms convert glucose and oxygen into water and carbon dioxide, releasing the energy needed to live, grow, and reproduce. All organisms, including producers, perform respiration. Is the opposite of photosynthesis.

Combustion

In the carbon cycle, fossil fuels and trees release carbon into the atmosphere as CO2or into the soil as ash.

Consumer

An organism that is incapable of photosynthesis and must obtain its energy by consuming other organisms.

Decomposers

Fungi and bacteria that convert organic matter into small elements and molecules that can be recycled back into the ecosystem.

Deforestation

is the clearing of trees, transforming a forest into cleared land. Deforestation can accelerate soil erosion if there is nothing to hold the soil in place.

Denitrification

The conversion of nitrate (NO3-) in a series of steps into the gases nitrous oxide (N2O) and, eventually, nitrogen gas (N2), which is emitted into the atmosphere.

Detritivore

An organism that specializes in breaking down dead tissues and waste products into smaller particles.

Detritus

In our use, it refers to dead particulate organic material that typically includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as fecal material.

Ecological Efficiency

The proportion of consumed energy that can be passed from one trophic level to another.

Ecosystem

A particular location on Earth with interacting biotic and abiotic components.

Evapotranspiration

The combined amount of evaporation and transpiration.

Food Chain

The sequence of consumption from producers through tertiary or higher consumers.

Food Web

A complex model of how energy and matter move between trophic levels.

Gross Primary Productivity

The total amount of solar energy that producers in an ecosystem capture via photosynthesis over a given amount of time.

Herbivore

A consumer that eats producers (animals that eat plants).

Heterotroph

Another word for a consumer. An organism that is incapable of photosynthesis and must obtain its energy by consuming other organisms.

Hydrologic Cycle

The movement of water through the biosphere.

Hypoxic

Low in oxygen.

Kg C/m2/day

Kilograms of carbon taken up per square meter per day. A unit that GPP is often measured in.

Leaching

The transportation of dissolved molecules through the soil via groundwater.

Limiting Nutrient

A nutrient required for the growth or an organism but available in a lower quantity than other nutrients.

Net Primary Productivity

The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy producers respire.

Nitrogen Cycle

The movement of nitrogen around the biosphere.

Nitrogen Fixation

A process by which some organisms can convert nitrogen gas molecules directly into ammonia.

Nitrification

The conversion of ammonia (NH4+) into nitrite (NO2-) and then into nitrate (NO3-).

Omnivore

An organism that eats food of both plant and animal origin.

Phosphorus Cycle

The movement of phosphorus around the biosphere.

Photosynthesis

Through the process of photosynthesis, producers use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose, a form of potential energy that can be used by a wide range of organisms.

Primary Consumer

Another name for an herbivore, a consumer that eats producers.

Producers

Refers to plants, algae, and other organisms that use the Sun's energy to produce usable forms of energy, also called autotrophs.

Runoff

Water that moves across the land surface and into streams and rivers.

Percolation

The downward movement of water through soil and rock due to gravity.

Scavenger

An organism that consumes dead animals.

Infiltration

The process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

This law dictates that when one organism consumes another, not all of the energy in the consumed organisms is transferred to the consumer, some of that energy is lost as heat.

Secondary Consumer

A carnivore that eats primary consumers.

Sedimentation

A slow part of the carbon cycle where small amounts of calcium carbonate are precipitated out of oceans and deposited as sediment on the ocean floor. Over millions of years, the thick layers of the rocks limestone and dolomite are formed creating the largest pool of carbon in the slow part of the carbon cycle.

Tertiary Consumer

A carnivore that eats secondary consumers.

Transpiration

The release of water from leaves during photosynthesis.

Trophic Levels

The successive levels of organisms consuming one another.

Nitrogen Fixation

A process by which some organisms can convert nitrogen gas molecules directly into ammonia.

Nodules

Bumps or swellings on the roots of certain plants that house nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Legume

A plant with simple dry fruit mostly in pods, characterized by nodes on their roots that contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Beans, peas, and soybeans are some examples.

Rhizobium bacteria

Responsible for fixing nitrogen in some plants, especially legumes.

Environment

The sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life.

Environmental Science

The field of study that looks at interactions among human systems and those found in nature.

Predator

An organism that hunts and kills other organisms for food.

Symbiosis

Is a close and long-term interaction between two species in an ecosystem. Includes mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

Parasitism

A relationship between two organisms of different species where one benefits and the other is harmed.

Mutualism

A relationship between two species in which both species benefit.

Commensalism

A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected.

Glucose

C6H12O6. One of the products of photosynthesis.

Entropy

Randomness in a system.

Feedbacks

These are adjustments in input or output rates caused by changes to a system.

Firsts Law of Thermodynamics

A physical law which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can change from one form to another.

Input

An addition to a system.

Joule

The amount of energy used when a 1-watt electrical device is turned on for 1 second.

Law of Conservation of Matter

A law of nature stating that matter cannot be created or destroyed.

Negative Feedback Loops

A feedback loop in which a system responds to a change by returning to its original state, or by decreasing the rate at which the change is occurring.

Output

A loss from a system.

Positive Feedback Loop

A feedback loop in which change in a system is amplified (changes further in the same direction).

Competitive Exclusion Principle

The principle stating that two species competing for the same limiting resource cannot coexist.

Dung Beetle

A keystone species which rapidly removes, buries, and recycles animal wastes.

Ectoparasites

Examples include lice, ticks, mosquitoes, mistletoe plants, fungi (that cause diseases such as athlete's foot), and lampreys. They attach themselves to the outside of their hosts.

Endoparasites

These parasites live inside their hosts. Examples include tapeworms and Plasmodium (which causes malaria).

Cause, Georgii

Conducted a set of experiments that demonstrated how food supply controls population growth.

Herbivory

An interaction in which an animal consumes a producer.

Interspecific Competition

Members of two or more species trying to use the same limited resources in an ecosystem.

Intraspecific Competition

Two or more organisms of a single species trying to use the same limited resources in an ecosystem.

Lichen

A composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi in a mutualistic relationship.

Prey

Organism that is captured and serves as a source of food for an organism of another species (the predator).

Resource Partitioning

When two species divide a resource based on differences in their behavior or morphology.

Aquatic Biome

An aquatic region characterized by a particular combination of salinity, depth, and water flow.

Calcium Carbonate

Limestone consists of this. Is what shell building marine animals such as corals are, are either made of or created as part of their life processes. CaCO3is its chemical formula.

Chaparral

What the woodland/shrubland biome is called in southern California.

Chemosynthesis

Process in which certain organisms (mostly specialized bacteria) extract inorganic compounds from their environment and convert them into organic nutrient compounds without the presence of sunlight.

Cloud

A visible mass of condensed water vapor suspended in the atmosphere. Can be composed of minute particles of liquid water or ice, or both.

Coastal Wetlands

Land areas covered with water all or part of the year including estuaries, river mouths, inlets, bays, sounds, mangrove forest swamps, and salt marshes.

Coastal Zone

This zone is the warm, nutrient-rich, shallow part of the ocean that extends from the high tide mark on land to the edge of a shelf-like extension of continual land masses known as the continental shelf.

Condensation Nuclei

Tiny particles on which droplets of water vapor can collect.

Coniferous Trees

Cone-bearing trees, mostly evergreens, that have needle-shaped or scale-like leaves. They produce wood known commercially as softwood.

Continental Shelf

The submerged parts of continents. During the last ice age many parts of this were exposed land.

Coral Bleaching

Occurs when the zooxanthellae within coral polyps are reduced or die. Can occur because of high water temperatures and sedimentation caused by deforestation and poor soil practices in nearby coastal areas.