Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts related to energy flow through ecosystems.

Ecosystem

The sum of all organisms living in a given area and the abiotic factors they interact with.

Biotic factors

Living or once living components of the environment, such as plants and animals.

Abiotic factors

Non-living components of the environment, such as air, soil, and sunlight.

First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Exchanges of energy increase the entropy or disorder of the universe.

Metabolic rate

The total amount of energy an animal uses in a unit of time.

Primary producers

Autotrophs that produce their own food using light energy.

Heterotrophs

Organisms that cannot make their own food and rely on primary producers.

Trophic levels

Levels in an ecosystem that categorize species based on their primary source of nutrition and energy.

Net primary production (NPP)

The amount of light energy converted to chemical energy minus the respiration used by primary producers.

Gross primary production (GPP)

The total primary production in an ecosystem.

Secondary production

The amount of chemical energy in a consumer's food that is converted to new biomass.

10% Rule

The principle that only about 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next.

Biogeochemical cycles

Nutrient cycles that contain both biotic and abiotic factors.

Water cycle

The continuous movement of water within the Earth and atmosphere.

Carbon cycle

The movement of carbon among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.

Nitrogen cycle

The process through which nitrogen in various forms is converted between its various chemical forms.

Phosphorus cycle

The movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.