Biology - Ecosystems

Producers

organisms that capture energy from outside the biosphere

Biosphere

All living organisms found on the planet

Ecosystem

A community of living organisms interacting with each other and their non-living environment.

Communities

Organisms that live with other organisms. Contains animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria interacting with each other in a variety of ways

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic: Living parts of an ecosystem
Abiotic: Non-living parts of an ecosystem

Consumers

Organisms that gain energy by eating producers and other consumers

Herbivores

eat plants

Carnivores

eat animals

Omnivores

eat both plants and animals

Detritivores

scavenge and eat dead organisms

Parasites

feed on other organisms without necessarily killing them

Decomposers

are fungi and bacteria that break down dead organisms and return matter and nutrients to the abiotic component of the ecosystem

Predator-Prey Relationship

one organism hunts and eats another organism, transferring the energy from the prey to the predator

In a food web, the order goes:

Producer → Primary Consumer → Secondary Consumer → Tertiary Consumer →Quaternary Consumer

Nutrients are

recycled through an ecosystem

How much energy is passed from organism to organism?

10%

Where does the other 90% go?

Lost as heat, or in waste like faeces

Biomass

The sum of all living matter in an ecosystem (kg)

Numbers

The total amount of all organisms in any level of an ecosystem

Carbon Cycle

1. Sunlight and CO2 in the atmosphere get absorbed in photo synthesis
2. Eaten by animal
3. Animal dies
4. Bones get turned into fossil fuels
5. Burnt in factories and CO2 goes back into atmosphere

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria

Takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and turns it into an ammonium

Animals

turn ammonium into proteins

Denitrifying bacteria

turns nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen