Lesson 22: Ecosystem Capture Energy and Cycle Chemicals

What are the 3 components of an ecosystem

Producers (living), consumers (living), non-living.

Nutrients are cycled between biotic and abiotic components

What is the ultimate source of energy for most ecosystems

Solar energy

How confined are nutrients, gasses, and water to their ecosystem

not super confined, inputs and outs can occur outside the ecosystem

What is a biogeochemical cycle

Nutrient cycle. It is how nutrients flow from non-living to living and back in a cyclic form

Are the different Proccesses of water cycle at euqal rates

Yes

What are the steps in the water cycle

Evaporation: water on earth from bodies of water evaporates to the atmosphere

Transpiration: water from plants surfaces also evaporate into the atmosphere. Can account for 90% of water in atmosphere in vegitative areas

Condensation: water goes from gas to liquid because of the cool air

Precipitation: water falls back to earth

Why is groundwater important

Accounts for 95% of earths freshwater

What is an aquifer:

The permeable underground layer of rocks/sand where ground water is

What are the two diff layers of ground water

Water table (upper layer): what flows into streams and is absorbed by roots

Lower layer: only accessible through wells

Why is carbon important

Framework of all organic compounds

What are the sources of carbon in living organisms and fossil fuels?

CO2 and when it dissolves in water it can turn into HCO3

What is carbon fixing

When plant/prokaryotes/protists take CO2 from air or water and make it into organic compounds

happens in light independent reactions of photosynthesis

How do plants/animals use the organic compounds? what releases in respiration and decomp

They use it for nutrients and break down the compounds for energy in cellular respiration.

Both release CO2.

What does production of methane do?

By anerobic prokaryotes also releases CO2 to environment

Why is burning fossils bad

Carbon compounds are stored in fossils/ Burning them releases carbon into the atmosphere at a rapid rate, creating an imbalance in the cycle.

What is ammonia chemical formula

NH3

What is ammonium chemical formula

NH4+

Why is the nitrogen cycle important?

Nitrogen is needed for proteins and nucelic acids. Nitrogen is a limting nutrient. Nitrogen makes up 78% of atmosphere, but plants and animals can’t use this nitrogen.

What sources do plants and animals get nitrogen from?

Plants take up ammonium and nitrate from soil

Animals get proteins from food

What is nitrogen fixing?

When prokaryotes convert N2 to NH3. It is carries out by bacteria that can be free or in a symbiotic relationship with plants

What is high energy abiotic nitrognen fixing

Nitrogen fixing done by ligthing, meteor trais, cosmic energy

How can NH3 get converted to NH4

NH3 gets converted to NH4 in soil because of excess of hydrogen ions

What is nitrification

The two strep process of how microorganisms cnvert ammonium or ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate

What is denitrification

Return of nitrogen to atmophere as nitrogen gas.

Carries out in anareobic conditions by other bacteria. Right conditions are requires-may only be seasonal or in special anaerobic habitats

How have humans affected the nitrogen cycle

through using nitrogen fertilizers

Describe the nitrogen cycle

Nitrogen air goes through nitrogen fixing where it turns into ammonia/ammonium. They become nitrites and then finally nitrates though nitrification. Plants and animals use the nitrated and through decomposition it returns to ammonium/ammonia. THe nitrates can also go through denitirfying bacteria and go back to nitrogen gas.

What are the stpes in the phosporous cycle

Weathering, taken up by plants/animals, decomposing, return to sediments

Describe the Phosphorus cycle in detail

Phosphorus is released into soil by weathering from rock. Plants take up the phosporus from the soil and animals get phosphorus from food. Phosphate is relaesed from waste/dead matter by decomposers. If phosphate isnt taken up by the plants, it can be washed away and precipitated into sediments

Why is the phosphorus cycle unique

It doesn’t have a gas phase

Why is phosphorus needed

Needed for phospholipis, atp, nucleic acids, and other organic compounds

How do humans disrupt the phosphorus cycle

Phosphorus additions in fertilizers

What is a limiting nutrient?

Nutrient/element in short supply compared to need for it by plants/algae

Why is a limiting nutrient important

Rate that its’s cycled determines its avaiability

What are the two most common limiting nutrients

nitrogen and phosphorus

What is the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton

Iron

Where can iron come from

From dust blown wind. Especially Sahara dessert dust

1st law of thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change form

2nd law of thermodynamics

with every energy conversion, some energy is converted to heat energy

Can living organisms use heat energy? What energy is used?

Living organisms can’t use heat energy for cellular needs. Living organisms use light and chemical energy. The heat energy that is produced is released to the envrionment as unusable energy. But' the sun constantly resupplies energy so its okay

What are trophic levels?

Feeding levels, like in a food chain just larger. not specie specific

What is the 1st trophic level.

Autotrophs (primary producers)

Most ecosystems have photoautotrophs: they use solar energy to synthesize organic compounds through photosynthesis. Some ecosystems have chemoautotrophs

What is the second trophic level

Herbivores/ Most of their energy is gained from eating organisms in the first trophic level

What is the third trophic level

Primary carnivores. Most energy is gained from consumers. organisms in the second trophic level

What is the fourh trophic level.

Secondary carnivores.

What is important to node about feeding of the tophic levels

It is not strictly trophic level feed on the lower trophic level. They can feed from different trophic levels

What are detritivores and decomposers

They feed on dead organic matter, which can come from all trophic levels.

Detritivores actually ingest dead organic matter

Decomposers secrete enzymes to break down the organic compounds and dead organic matter

Contains a variety of organisms

What is productivity

The rate at which all organisms in the trophic lvel synthesize new organic matter.

What is primary productivity:

Productivity of primary producers

What is gross primary productivity

All of the photosyntehsis by all of the primary producers in the ecosystem during a set timer period. usually a year

What is respiration

The rate of the energy used by the primary producers for their own metabollic needs

What is net primary productivity

The gross primary productivity minus respiration. The energy that is available for the second trophic level.

What is secondary productivity

The productivity of the heterotrophs. Each heterotopic level has its own secondary productivity

How much net primary productivity is avaiable to herbivores

All NPP is awaible to herbivores, but secondary productivity only uses some of it because not all NPP is appealing ex. wood

How can a heterotroph use that energy (NPP) ex. grasshopper

Grasshoppers only invest 17% of the ingested energy into growth, 50% of the energy ingested ges to waste and feces. 33% of the energy is for cellular reproduction. So the next trophic level only has access to that 17% dedicated to growth.

How do carnivores use the energy from heterotrophs

They can only use the energy that the organism dedicated to grwoth. Some of the energy will go to waste, cellular respiration. Only a small amount is invested into growth, reproduction, etc.

What percentage of solar energy is actually used by primary producers

1%

What percentage of chemical bond energy is avaible to the next trophic level

10%

What sets the available energy for the ecosystem

The primary productivity

Why is there a limit to the level of trophic levels an ecosystem can have

The decline in avaiable energy makes it so. There has to be enough energy to sustain a trophic level, and because there is a decline in abaiable energy, you can’t have infinite trophic levels

What causes variation in productivity in different ecosystems?

Temp, precipitation, nutrient availability. Basically environmental factors

What does a pyramid enegy flow depict? What is it’s shape?

Depics the decline in energy in each trophic level. It must be an upright triangle because there is always a decline in avaiable energy from one trophic level to the next

What shape can a pyramid of biomass be

It can be upright or inverted

What does a pyramid of numbers show? what shape can it be?

Shows the number of individuals at a trophic level. It is usually upright becasue there are less individuals at higher trophic levels because of energy restraints. It is usually upright.

What is a trophic cascade? What are it’s effects called? What is an example?

When upper trophic levels may influence 2 or more lower trophic levels. The effects are called top-down effects.

Example: trouts are predators of invertebrates, the density of invertebrates was lower in trout added areas. So the algae biomass was higher bc invertebrates weren’t there to eat them

What are bottom up effects? what is an example?

How lower trophic levels effect upper trophic levels. When primary productivity is low, primary producer biomass is too low to support herbivores. As primary productiviyty increases above some threshold, herbivore biomass also increase, but producer biomass may not increase because of the herbiovres. It can increase when primary carnivores keep herbivore population at bay

Do larger islands or smaller islands support more species?

Larger

Collonization and extinction of species relatinships

New islands get colonized as new species are disbursed through islands. Species on the islands will be loss cux of extinction. Cololization rates should decrease over time and extinction ate will increase as more species occupy the islnd

What controls species-area relationships

Area, isolation, and likelyhood ospecies extinction, and colonization

Number of species is a dynamic equilibrium of what?

Between colonization and equilibrium

Relationship between island size and extinction and colonization and distance away from mainland

The smaller the island, the higher the extinction rates b/c population is anyway small

The closer to the mainland, the higher the colonization rates

What type of island has the highest species richness at equlibrium?

Large islands near the mainland