Ecosystems

Key definitions, Succession, Energy systems and cycles

• Ecosystem

All the species and non-living components interacting within an environment [1]

• Habitat

Where an organism, animal, plant, population, or community lives [1]

• Niche

Role of an organism in the ecosystem, habitat, environment, or community [1]

• Biotic factors

Living components of an ecosystem (e.g., competition, predation, disease) [1][2]

• Abiotic factors

Non-living components of an ecosystem (e.g., temperature, light intensity, pH) [2]

• Autotroph

A producer, such as plants that use photosynthesis to make complex organic molecules [3]

• Heterotroph

Organisms that acquire nutrients and energy by ingesting other organisms [4]

• Trophic level

Stage or level in a food chain [4]

• Primary producer

Organism that can manufacture its own complex organic molecules from inorganic molecules [4][5]

• Primary consumer

Organism that obtains food by eating only producers (herbivore) [5]

• Gross primary productivity

Rate at which plants convert light energy to chemical energy [5]

• Net productivity

Energy captured as biomass available to the next trophic level [6]

• Biomass

Mass of living material [6]

• Ecological efficiency

Efficiency of energy or biomass transfer from one trophic level to the next [7]

• Nitrogen cycle

Includes processes like nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification [8]

• Carbon cycle

Involves photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition [9]

• Ecological succession

Directional change through time of the community composition in an area [10]

• Pioneer community

Colonizers at the beginning of succession [10]

• Climax community

Community of species in a stable state [10]

What is the equation for efficiency of biomass transfer?

Biomass transfer/Biomass intake x 100