APES Final Terms I do not know

Nitrogen Fixation

78% of earth is Nitrogen but to be used by other organisms nitrogen must be fixed into ammonia or nitrates which can happen by lightning storms/soil bacteria to be made biologically available

Nitrification

Second step when soil bacteria convert ammonia into nitrites and then to one of the forms that can be used as plants called nitrate

Assimilation

plants absorb ammonia, amonia ions, and nitrate ions through their roots and then heterotrophs recieve energy by consuming other organisms then obtain nitrogen when they consume plants’ proteins and nucleic acids

Ammonification

decomposing bacteria step 4 convert dead organisms into ammonia or ammonium ions which are reused by plants or volatized into the atmosphere

Denitrification

In denitrification specialized bacteria (anaerobic) convert amonia back into nitrites and nitrates and then into nitrogen gas and nitrous oxide gas to go back into the atmosphere #5

Phosphorus found in

soil/rock/sediments through chemical weathering, symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants and phosphorus is a limiting factor which controls the population growth becayse it is needed for plant growth.

Terrestrial cycle

movement of essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and water within land based ecosystems

Eutrophication

When a body of water receives excess nutrients (BAD)

how do organisms get sulfur

plants get sulfur in the water through their roots while animals eat plants that have sulfur.

Autotrophs

capable of making their own organic compounds from inorganic chemicals

heterotrophs

get food energy from eating other organisms or products created by them

chemotrophs

chemosynthetic organisms found in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean

Net primary productivity

amount of energy plants give to the herbivores in an ecosystem found by taking the GPP - amount of energy plants use it is a limiting factor for it’s consumers

GPP

amount of sugar the plants produce in photosynthesis

Detritivores vs. Decomposers

Detri. physically eats dead organisms to get energy such as termites while Decom. chemically breakdown by releasing enzymes.

Species Richness

number of different species found in an ecosystem

Law of Tolerance

degree to which organisms are capable of tolerating changes in the environment (basis of evolution)

Law of the minimum

Living organisms will continue to live eating anything available until there is nothing left

Provisioning services

category benefits that humans recieve which provide humans with water/food medicine energy etc.

Regulating services

waste decomposition and detoxification, purification of water and air

cultural services

use of nature for science/education/recreation

supporting services

ones that make other services possible ex. primary production, nutrient cycling etc.

Indicator Species and Keystone Species

Species used as a standard to evaluate the health of an ecosystem ex: trout subject to polution disease so if they dissapear there is a pollutant and Keystone species whos existence allows diversity of other animals/the ecosystem would drastically change.

Primary succession

starts on bare rock with no soil after severe events

secondary succession

existing soil with nutrients and seeds/roots from a previous community

Pioneer species

first organism to have wide ranges of ecological tolerance

climax community

final stage of succession in which balance between abiotic/biotic components referred to as the climax community

Lichens

pioneer organisms that take bare rock and turn it into soil

Habitat fragmentation

development isolates a habitat into parts and isolates ecosystems

edge effect

more species live on the edge of with more biological and species diversity than inside of it

ecotones

overlapping boundaries of two ecosystems

selective pressure

any cause that reduces reproductive success/fitness in a population

genetic drift

random changes in the frequency of gene variants/alleles driven by chance and not by fitness

Ecological extinction

so few individuals of a species that this species can no longer perform it’s ecological function (what it gives to the ecosystem)

Commercial/economic extinction

few individuals of the population DO exist but the effort and cost it take to hunt them down is not worth the expense

Gause’s principle

no two species can occupy the same niche at the same time and the species less fit will die/move out

realized niche

move to occupy a smaller niche than it would in absense of competiion they compromise size

resource partitioning

different species use slightly different parts of the habitat

ecozones or ecoregions are

geographic areas that have similar land and climate

Decidious forest

75-250cm rainfall hardwood trees

Grasslands

Sod forming grasses (think plantation) 10-60cm rain

Conficerous forest (taiga)

20-60 cm cpnficerous trees

Savanna

10-30 during rainy season and has grasses with widely spaced trees

epilimnion

uppermost oxygenated layer of freshwater

hypolimnion

lower colder denser layer of freshwater

thermocline

line between these two layers that is when the temperature shifts dramatically

Littoral zone

very shallow water at the shoreline and plants/animals that live here get lots of sunlight LIT zone includes the species that go back and forth to shore like turtles

Limnetic Zone

open sunlit surface of a freshwater body away from the shore, where photosynthetic organisms live

Profundal zone

water deep enough that sunlight cannot penetrate through it where photosynthetic plants cannot live and organisms have adapted to little light and cold temp

Benthic Zone

surface and sub layers of the river, lake, and pond, are characterized by very low temperatures and low oxygen levels inhabited by organisms that live on/below SEDIMENT surface

estuary

mouth of ocean meets river

barrier islands

created by buildup of deposited sediments and their boundaries are constantly shifting as water moves around them

Euphotic Zone

similar to the limnetic zone in freshwater but in salt water it is the upper warm layers of the ocean with the highest level of dissolved oxygen

Bathyal Zone

middle region colder and darker and does not have enough sunlight to promote photosynthesis similar to the profundal zone inhabited by sharks/whales

Abyssal zone

deepest region of the ocean extremely cold temperatures high levels of nutrients organisms live off of bioluminescence

commensalism

one benefits while the other does not benefit nor get harmed

lithosphere vs. pedosphere

Lithosphere is solid rocky outer layer of earth including earths crust and UPPERMOST mantle while the pedosphere is the soil layer at earth’s surface and forms where each of the four spheres interact key in nutrient cycling essentially lithosphere below surface while pedosphere is at surface.

Exosphere

above 500km highest absolutely thinnest gases

Thermosphere

2nd to highest 80-500km gases very thin and where northern lights take place

Mesosphere

middle region meteors burn here 3

Stratosphere

20-50km temperatures increase with distance from earth holds crucial ozone layer which shields earth by absorbing most UV radiation

ozone layer

17-30km 2nd to closest to earth O3 thin band of O3 traps radiation from the sun

troposphere

closest layer to earth where weather takes place

chemical weathering

result of chemical reactions to rock with water air or dissolved materials and results in minerals that are broken down or restructured into different minerals this tends to dominate in warm enviorments EX rust when iron touches water

Biological weathering

weathering that happens because of physical or chemical means through activities of LIVING organisms like when trees gain cracks as they grow bigger

Rock cycle is what interacting

time pressure and heat

Igneous

when rock is melted by heat and pressure below the crust and then cooled into solid igneous rock from molten lava ex. basalt

Sedimentary

formed as sediment when eroded rocks and remains of plants and animals builds up and gets compressed forms under water as sediments on ocean floor compressed and then cemented together example limestone

Metamorphic

formed by pressure and heat which causes physical/chemical changes to an existing rock when sedimentary rocks sink deeper into the earth and are heated by high temperatures in the earth’s mantle ex: slate from shale.