energy flow

homeostasis

how cells maintain stable conditions, also happens at the level of the entire organism & allows organisms to grow & reproduce

thermoregulation

 an endothermic organism controlling its body temperature is known as

regulated internally

Mammals and birds

use negative feedback loops to maintain body temperature, hypothalamus

Ectotherms

generate relatively small amounts of heat, so their body temperatures are strongly impacted by external conditions, most plants

Ectothermic animals

alter their behavior to adjust their temperature

net gain in energy

allows an individual to grow & reproduce, which can lead to an increase in the size of the population

net loss of energy

an lead to the death of an individual and decline of the population

Endotherms

have higher energy requirements to feed their higher metabolic rate

Ectotherms

more limited in the habitat they can live in, but they have much lower energy requirements and can go long periods without eating

Large animals

have a lower metabolic rate on a per-kilogram basis, lose heat to the environment more slowly

food is abundant and have the entire summer to grow and store fat before winter

Large animals breed in the fall so that their offspring are born in the spring because?

chemosynthesis

where sunlight isn’t available, chemical compounds are used to build sugar in a process

organisms capture energy from small inorganic molecules like H₂S (hydrogen sulfide gas)

heterotrophs

Organisms that obtain energy by eating other organisms

autotrophs

Organisms that obtain energy by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis

Biomass

the total mass of living matter at each trophic level

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Energy input must be higher than energy loss in order to maintain order and perform cellular processes

entropy

a measure of disorder, and high entropy means high disorder and low energy

carbon

All living things contain

in the ocean

where does CO2 dissolves in H2O to create carbonic acid (H2CO3)

H2CO3 dissociates in H2O to bicarbonate (HCO3-) and H+

HCO3- dissociates in H2O to carbonate (CO32-) & H+

Nitrogen gas (N2)

form of nitrogen that is unavailable to plants

nitrogen fixation

Nitrogen gas is captured by bacteria in the soil and converted to ammonium ions (NH4+) and nitrate ions (NO3-) in a process

animal waste & decomposition

Nitrogen is returned to the soil through

denitrification

Denitrifying bacteria convert nitrogen compounds back into nitrogen gas, which returns it to the atmosphere