Ecosystem & Restoration

1. Apply and distinguish between the physical laws used to explain why energy flows through life, while nutrients cycle.

2. Distinguish between examples and depictions of primary and secondary production.

Primary production" refers to the process by which autotrophic organisms like plants create organic matter through photosynthesis, forming the base of the food chain, while "secondary production" is the creation of biomass by heterotrophic organisms (like animals) who consume the organic matter produced by primary producers

3. Determine the trophic level of an organism from a figure or description.

4. Distinguish between examples and descriptions of gross primary productivity, net primary

productivity, and net ecosystem productivity.

Gross primary productivity- includes chemical and stored energy in plants to make more energy 

Net primary productivity- amount of energy available in an ecosystem to support other organisms (the factors that affect the growth and biodiversity in an ecosystem)

Net ecosystem productivity- 

5. List factors affecting primary production in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

6. Use the 10% rule to predict how much energy will be transferred from primary producers to any consumer along a food chain.

7. Relate the 10% rule to the shape of energy and biomass pyramids.

8. Distinguish between examples and depictions of production efficiency and trophic efficiency,

and calculate these quantities from figures or descriptions.

9. Given its production efficiency, predict whether an organism is likely ectothermic or

endothermic.

10. Label the water, nitrogen, and carbon cycles (Figure 55.14). Include reservoirs, the forms the

nutrients take in each reservoir (e.g. carbon dioxide vs. carbon assimilated in the body of a

plant), and the names of the processes that transform the nutrients within a reservoir or move

them from one reservoir to another (e.g. precipitation, nitrogen fixation).

11. List factors that affect the rate of nutrient cycling in an ecosystem.

12. Predict when bioremediation or biological augmentation would be implemented to restore an

ecosystem