Ecology of Energy and Nutrient Movement

Flashcards on the the ecology of energy and nutrient movement through an ecosystem.

An ecosystem is a level at which we can view the living world where we take into consideration interactions between living organisms, as well as the ____ or____ environment.

nonliving, abiotic

__ describe different levels of feeding or energy within an ecosystem.

Trophic levels

__ are those organisms that are responsible for doing primary productivity.

Producers

__ are those that eat producers.

Primary consumers

__ can consume primary consumers, and in doing so, they acquire energy and nutrients.

Secondary consumers

__ are those that are suited to consume secondary consumers.

Tertiary consumers

__ is a more accurate depiction of what's actually going on in an ecosystem regarding its energy or trophic levels, showing all of those different energy relationships between members of the community.

A food web

When animals are eating strictly plant material it is called __.

herbivory

__ quantifies the conversion of light energy to chemical energy.

Primary productivity

If we were to depict the amount of energy in a system, what shape that typically takes is a __.

pyramid

As energy is passed from one trophic level to the next level, only about __ of energy is passed on and stored at that next level.

10%

As one thing eats something else, in those energy conversions, we're going to have some energy that's gonna be lost as and from the system

heat, feces

Energy will enter as ___ and exits as __.

light, heat

Unlike energy flowing through an ecosystem, __ cycle through ecosystems.

nutrients

Unlike energy, which tends to decrease as you move up a food chain or a food web, there are certain molecules and certain components of chemistry that rather than decreasing, will actually accumulate in tissues and become more concentrated the higher you get in a trophic level or ecosystem - this is known as __.

biological magnification

What is Net Primary Productivity?

The rate at which energy is stored as biomass by plants or other primary producers and made available to the consumers in the ecosystem.