Apes Chapter 5

Front 1

Sea Otters/Community Effect

Back 1

Sea otters eat sea urchins, which eat kelp, which provides a habitat for many species. So by eating the sea urchins the otters are indirectly increasing the diversity of species in the ocean. This is called the COMMUNITY EFFECT

Front 2

Hold fasts

Back 2

the base of kelp that keeps it attached to the ground

Front 3

Keystone species (otters)

Back 3

a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically. (the otters)

Front 4

ecosystem

Back 4

organisms that interact and function together, interacting through their physical and chemical environments, thus enabling life to persist
(an ecosystem is the minimal entity that has the properties required to sustain life)

Front 5

ecological community

Back 5

the living part of an ecosystem structure,
the set of species found in the same place interacting within the ecosystem

Front 6

non-living part of an ecosystem structure

Back 6

the physical-chemical environment, including the local atmosphere, water, mineral soil (land) or other substrate (in water).

Front 7

Two basic types of ecosystem processes

Back 7

cycling of chemical elements and a flow of energy

Front 8

chemical cycling

Back 8

21 chemical elements are required by at least some form of life, and each chemical element required for growth and reproduction must be available to each organism at the right time, the right amount, and in the right ratio relative to other elements. These elements must be recycled
Waste>food>waste>food

Front 9

2nd ecological community term

Back 9

the community consists of all the species found in an area whether or not they are known to interact

Front 10

food chain

Back 10

the linkage of who feeds on whom

Front 11

food web

Back 11

a more complicated linkage, which consists of grouped organisms called trophic levels

Front 12

trophic levels

Back 12

consists of all organisms in a food web that are the same number of feeding levels away from the original energy source (in most ecosystems the sun is the original energy source)

Front 13

photosynthesis

Back 13

the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.

Front 14

autotrophs

Back 14

"self-nourishing"
an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide. (first trophic level)

Front 15

heterotrophs

Back 15

made up of herbivores, carnivores, and decomposers,
an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances

Front 16

herbivores

Back 16

organisms that feed on plants, algae, or photosynthetic bacteria(second trophic level)

Front 17

carnivores

Back 17

meat eaters that feed directly on herbivores (third trophic level)
carnivores that feed on third-level carnivores are in the fourth trophic level and so on

Front 18

decomposers

Back 18

those that feed on dead organic material (highest trophic level in an ecosystem)

Front 19

pelagic ecosystem

Back 19

open ocean ecosystem
algae/plankton<zooplankton/small fish<other fish/invertebrates<killer whales

Front 20

Watershed (valley for water)

Back 20

an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.

Front 21

ecosystem energy flow

Back 21

the movement of energy through an ecosystem from the external environment through a series of organisms and back to the external environment

Front 22

two ways energy enters an ecosystem

Back 22

1.energy fixed by organisms and moving through food webs within an ecosystem
2.heat energy that is transferred by air or water currents or by convection through soils and sediments and warms living things (warm air traveling over forest>transferred to the soil and organisms)

Front 23

Law of conservation of energy
(first law of thermodynamics)

Back 23

in any physical or chemical change, energy is neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another

Front 24

erwin schroinger

Back 24

famous 20th century physicist, author of "what is life"
claimed "according to the first law of thermodynamics we should be able to recycle energy in our bodies and never have to eat anything