Vocab list

First law of thermodynamics/Principle of conservation of energy
Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change from one form to another.

Second law of thermodynamics
Energy is transferred through a food chain, where some chemical energy is converted into heat energy.

Efficiency
The efficiency of a process is calculated by dividing the useful work (output) produced by the process by the total energy consumed (input).

Entropy
Entropy measures the amount of disorder in a system; an increase in entropy during energy transformations reduces the energy available for doing work.

Energy transformations
This refers to the process where energy changes from one form to another, such as converting chemical energy into kinetic energy.

Photosynthesis
This process converts light energy into chemical energy stored as glucose, some of which can be used as biomass by autotrophs.

Cellular respiration
This process releases energy from glucose by converting it into a usable chemical form for cellular activities in living organisms.

Consumer (heterotroph)
These are organisms that obtain their food from other organisms.

Trophic level
This refers to the position that an organism occupies in a food chain, or a group of organisms that share the same position in food chains within a community.

Producer
These organisms produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis.

Productivity
This is the measure of energy conversion into biomass over time, quantified as mass per unit area per unit time (e.g., grams per square meter per year).

Gross productivity (GPP)
This represents the total biomass gain by an organism.

Net productivity (NPP)
This is the amount of energy or biomass remaining after subtracting losses due to respiration.

Biocides
These are substances that destroy or neutralize living organisms (e.g., disinfectants, pesticides); bioaccumulation refers to the concentration increase of non-biodegradable pollutants within organisms over time.

Ecological pyramids
These models depict the quantitative differences in stored living material across different trophic levels.

Bioaccumulation
This term describes the increasing concentration of non-biodegradable pollutants within organisms at various trophic levels over time.

Biomagnification
This refers to the growing concentration of non-biodegradable pollutants through a food chain, due to the loss of biodegradable biomass via processes like respiration.

Heterotroph
An organism that cannot synthesize its own food and must rely on consuming plants or animals for energy and nutrients.

Autotroph
These are organisms capable of producing their own food, including green plants and photosynthetic bacteria.

Photoautotroph
Organisms that utilize light as an external energy source to perform photosynthesis, such as green algae and some types of bacteria.

Chemoautotroph
These organisms obtain energy from inorganic chemical reactions during chemosynthesis.

Primary productivity
This refers to the rate at which biomass is produced using an external energy source and inorganic sources of carbon and other elements.

Gross primary productivity (GPP)
This quantifies the total gain of energy or biomass per unit area over a specified time by green plants, reflecting the energy fixed through photosynthesis.

Net primary productivity (NPP)
This indicates the increase in biomass of green plants after accounting for respiratory losses, representing the biomass available for consumers.

Gross secondary productivity (GSP)
This measures the total energy or biomass that consumers assimilate, determined by subtracting fecal loss from the mass of consumed food.

Net secondary productivity (NSP)
This is the overall gain in energy or biomass by consumers per unit area over a specified time after accounting for respiratory losses.

Biomass
This refers to the total dry organic material in a population or trophic level within an ecosystem.

Standing crop
This model shows the quantitative differences in the amount of living material present at each trophic level.

Pyramid of biomass
This model illustrates the quantitative differences in living material present at each trophic level.

Pyramid of numbers
This model depicts the number of organisms found at each trophic level.

Pyramid of energy/product