Sustaining Ecosystems-Key words

Food Webs

Show how several food chains overlap with each other.

Food Chains

Show what eats what within a biological community (display feeding relationships/patterns)

Cattle Ranching

-use of land exclusively to rear (breed) cattle for their meat.

-makes up 80%of the use of deforestated areas in Brazil.

Leaching

-the process of the heavy and frequent rain washing the nutrients down to the bedrock of the Earth.

-this means that the soil closer to the surface has a lower concentration of nutrients.

Interdependence

all the different parts of an ecosystem depend on one another.

Soil erosion

-deterioration of soil due to the gradual movement of topsoil ( the upper layer of soil )

-This is caused by wind,water and mass movement.

Mass movement

The downhill movement of sediment that moves due to gravity.

Selective logging

Only cutting down a certain species of tree or trees of a cerain age (e.g. in the Brazillian Amazon only very old trees may be logged.)

Biosphere reserves

Protected ares for conservation

Eco tourism

-tourism that has minimal impact on the environment and that helps support local communities.

-e.g.Hotel Hix Island house in Puerto Rico

Concession

-Logging businesses can pay for the fights to log a certain area conditional on meeting certain standards.

-Simpler way of monitoring the Amazon

Ecosystem

The living organismsre in a particular area together with the non living components of the envirionment.

Biome

-A large region of Earth that has a certain climate and fauna and flora that have adapted to the enviroment.

-Are often defined by abiotic factors such as climate ,relief, goelogy ,soils and vegetation

Relief

The height and shape of the land which influence local weather.

Examples of Biotic factors

plants, animals, fungi ,viruses and bacteria

Examples of Abiotic factors

rocks minerals water , sun ,temperature ,atmosphere/gases, soil and energy

What do all ecosystems need?

Energy from sunlight through photosynthesis

Producers

Plants that begin food chains by making energy from carbon dioxide and sunlight.

Consumers

an organism that obtains its energy by eating other organisms.

Decomposers

An organism which eats dead orgainsms ,fallen leaves ,animal droppings and breaks them down into simpler materials.

Trophic Level

-Each stage in a food chain or web .

-approx. 90% of energy is lost at each tophic level.