Studied by 4 people
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
Sunlight and CO2 in the atmosphere get absorbed in photo synthesis
Eaten by animal
Animal dies
Bones get turned into fossil fuels
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
