Ecosystems capture energy and cycle chemicals

What is cycled between biotic and abiotic components?

nutrients

What is most of an ecosystem’s source of energy that flows in one direction through the ecosystem?

solar energy

Inputs of what substances can occur from outside ecosystem and go outside of an ecosystem?

gases, water, and some nutrients

What are biogeochemical cycles?

the nutrient flow from nonliving to living in a cyclic path

What rates do not influence the water cycle?

cellular respiration and photosynthesis

Evo transpiration from lakes, oceans, and plant surfaces leads to…

water existing as a gas in the atmosphere

What process contributes 90% of the water in the atmosphere?

transpiration

What is condensation?

process of water in the atmosphere (gaseous) turning into a liquid due to cooling

What is precipitation?

water falling back to Earth as a liquid

What is the most important reservoir for water, accounting for 95% of freshwater on Earth?)

Groundwater

What is the upper layer of groundwater called?

water table

What is the water table?

upper layer of groundwater that flows into streams and is absorbed by plant roots

What is the lower layer of groundwater?

under the water table and only accessible by wells

What is a groundwater aquifer?

permeable underground layer of rock, sand, gravel where water is found

What element is the framework for all organic ccompounds?

Carbon

What gas is 0.03% of the atmosphere?

Carbon Dioxide

What are the sources of Carbon?

Carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere and bicarbonate (CO2 dissolved in water)

What is the process of plants and prokaryotes/protists taking in CO2 during photosynthesis and synthesizing organic compounds?

Carbon fixation

What is Respiration?

CO2 in organic compounds being broken down for energy, releasing Carbon Dioxide

What is decomposition?

The dead organic matter breaks down, releasing Carbon Dioxide

What process occurs through anaerobic prokaryotes and releases CO2 to the atmosphere?

Methane Production

What are man-made source of carbon?

Methane production, fossil fuel combustion

What element is needed in large amounts by all organisms for proteins and nucleic acids?

Nitrogen

Which element is usually the limiting nutrient in many ecosystems?

Nitrogen

What element is 78% of the atmosphere, but unusable for most plants and animals on their own?

Nitrogen

What process converts Nitrogen gas into Ammonia through free living and symbiotic prokaryotes (rhizobia)?

Nitrogen Fixation

What are abiotic sources of nitrogen fixation?

lightning, meteorite trails, cosmic radiation

What is Nitrification?

Process of converting ammonium/ammonia into nitrate/nitrite

What is denitrification?

The release of Nitrogen gas to the atmosphere by conversion of Nitrate to N2

How is Nitrogen in waste and dead matter released?

as NH3 and NO3-

How do humans impact the nitrogen cycle?

Nitrogen fertilizers increase the nitrogen in the soil

How do plants utilize nitrogen?

Take up ammonia and nitrate from the soil

How do animals utilize nitrogen?

use proteins in food they consume for the amino acid building blocks to form complex proteins

Describe the flow of nitrogen in most ecosystems?

Nitrates are taken up by plants, pass to animals, and then decomposers

Which nutrient has no gaseous phase and is needed for phospholipids, ATP, nucleic acids, and other organic compounds?

Phosphorus

How is phosphorus released into the soil?

By weathering rock, than uptake is done by plants

What process releases Phosphorus from waste or dead organic matter?

decomposition

How do humans impact the phosphorus cycle?

fertilizers increase phosphorus in runoff and soils

What is an element that is in short supply relative to the needs of plants and algae?

limiting nutrient

What are the main limiting nutrients?

nitrogen and phosphorus

True or False: Energy is never recycled in an ecosystem

True

What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change forms

Ex: light energy can turn into chemical energy

What is the second law of thermodynamics?

For every energy conversion, some is converted to heat

• which is needed for cellular needs

What is the heat energy generated by energy conversions for?

some can be used to maintain body temperature, but it is mainly unusable

What serves as an open system for energy, continuously resupplied by the sun?

Earth

What are trophic levels?

groups of organisms that fill some role with regards to their primary food source

What are primary producers?

autotrophs (mainly photoautotrophic)

What are photoautotrophs?

autotrophs that use solar energy to make organic compounds (photosynthesize)

What are herbivores?

most energy consuming organisms in 1st level (Trophic level 2)

• eat primary producers in Trophic Level 1

What trophic levels are heterotrophic?

All except 1

What are primary carnivores?

Trophic level 3, consume 2nd level

What are secondary carnivores?

Trophic level 4, consume trophic level 3

What are Detrivores?

animals that feed on dead matter (detritus)

• consume all trophic levels

What are decomposers?

bacteria and fungi that secrete enzymes to break down and absorb nutrients from dead/decaying matter

True or False: Trophic levels are strict boundaries, where animals do not feed on more than one level

False

What is the rate of all organisms and trophic levels as they synthesize new organic matter?

Productivity

What is the productivity of primary producers/all photosynthesis by all primary producers over time?

Primary productivity

What is Gross Primary Productivity?

primary productivity per year

What is the rate of respiration?

The rate of plant energy use

What is Net Primary Productivity?

Energy autotrophs invest in growth and reproduction per year, energy available for 2nd level

What is secondary productivity?

productivity of heterotrophs in growth and development

What productivity uses only a fraction of the NPP from the 1st trophic level?

Secondary productivity

What happens to the ingested Net Primary Productivity?

Released as heat energy, waste energy, used for secondary production

As trophic level increases, what happens to energy availability?

it decreases

which group of organisms sets the available energy for an ecosystem, with its NPP being impacted by temperature, precipitation and nutrient availability?

Primary Producers

What is the 10% rule?

Only 10% of the energy from one trophic level will be transferred to the next

All energy will eventually be released as…

heat

Describe a pyramid of energy flow

declines in energy as you go up in trophic level

Describe a pyramid of biomass

Usually gets smaller with trophic level

• higher trophic levels limited by primary producers

In which ecological pyramid are members declining with trophic level due to energy constraints?

Pyramid of numbers

What shows the relationship between trophic levels?

Ecological pyramids

True or False: an Ecological Pyramid of Energy Flow can never be inverted

True

What is a trophic cascade?

Upper trophic levels may influence 2 or more lower levels

Trophic Cascades result in what type of effects?

Top-down effects

The Sea Otter, Sea Urchin, and kelp forest ecosystem exhibit…

Top-down effects

When primary productivity increases increases herbivore biomass, later supporting primary carnivores, late this is an example of…

bottom-up effects

What is the species-area-relationship?

larger islands support more species than smaller islands

What model shows the dynamic stability between colonization and extinction?

Equilibrium model

As the island size increases, what happens to the number of species?

also increases

As the island distance to the mainland increases what occurs?

species number decreases

What is the growth and reproduction of a consumer group (Ingested energy - waste energy - metabolic energy)

Secondary Production

What is ER?

Ecosystem Respiration

What is ecosystem respiration?

the rate at which organic matter is consumed and respited by all organisms in the ecosystem

In heterotrophic ecosystems, describe GPP:ER

The ER is greater than the GPP

In autotrophic ecosystems, describe GPP and ER

GPP is greater than ER

What is the net ecosystem productivity?

GPP minus ER (Gross primary productivity minus the total ecosystem respiration)

What drive biogeochemical processes?

biota

What is the ecosystem metabolism?

sum of everyone’s metabolism (Producers + consumer(

What is the energy stored by producers and available to consumers over a given period of time?

NPP/NEP

What produces plant biomass?

plant growth and reproduction

What is percolation?

Water trickling down rocks and soil into groundwater aquifers

The breakdown of dead organic matter releases…

Carbon Dioxide

What process does carbon fixation occur in?

photosynthesis

What source of carbon leads to ocean acidification?

Bicarbonate

Is PH3 gas from combustion of fossil fuels a source of phosphorus for an ecosystem?

No

Autotrophs can be _______ or _______

photoautotrophs, chemoautotrophs

GPP - ER = ?

NPP

What is gross secondary productivity?

energy ingested - energy as waste

What is NSP?

Net secondary productivity

• GSP - respiration

Island biogeography also accounts for what types of habitat other than island?

fragmented ecosystems