Energy Flash cards

Ecology and what does it consist of?

The study of how organisms interact with each other and the environment. The study of the biotic and abiotic.

Productivity

The amount of energy in an ecosystem that is available to do work

Biomass

The total living biomass in a given area or ecosystem

Plants have the greatest biomass in most ecosystems

Why? Because animals depend on plants, you eat a plant and you get less potential energy out of the plant.

Energy flow

Trophic levels: The feeding relationships is an ecosystem, which determine the flow of energy and nutrient cycling

An ecosystem cannot have more than four trophic levels

Because the quality of the energy becomes less and less efficient. Entropy. At the bottom of the pyramid there is more energy. Only 10% of the energy goes from one trophic structure to another. So since the grasshoppers are at the end you need to eat a lot of grass.

Primary producers

An organism that transforms solar energy into chemical energy

Consumer

An organism that isn’t self-feeding and obtains energy from eating a producer or another consumer.

Primary consumers

The second level of trophic structure that is composed of herbivores.

Second consumer

The third level of trophic structure that contains the carnivores (meat eater). Pigs would be an example.

Tertiary consumers

Higher trophic level. The fourth level of trophic structure that contains animals that eat secondary consumers.

Food chain

A pathway that describes how energy is transferred through the trophic structures in a community.