Ecosystems

Processes in carbon cycle

Combustion, photosynthesis, respiration, consumption, and follillisation.

What percentage of energy is typically transferred between trophic levels?

10%

In a pyramid of biomass, which level has the largest total mass?

Producer.

Why does biomass decrease at each tropic level?

Energy is lost as heat.

Define ‘bioaccumulate.’

The gradual buildup of substances, like toxins or pollutants, in an organism over its lifetime, occurring when the rate of intake from the environment exceeds the rate at which the organism can eliminate or break them down.

Give an example of a substance that bioaccumulates.

Mercury.

Why do we need nutrient cycles in nature?

Carbon/ nitrogen would be locked in dead plants.

Explain the importance of microbes in the cycle.

Microbes are essential for decomposition and releasing nutrients.