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41 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a Biosphere? |
The zone around the Earth where life can exist. It is a very thin area compared to the diameter of the Earth. It is composed of 3 parts. |
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What are the 3 parts of the biosphere? |
1. Atmosphere 2. Lithosphere 3. Hydrosphere |
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What is the Atmosphere? |
Definition: layer of gases (78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% other gases including water and carbon dioxide) extending upwards for hundreds of kilometres.• The atmosphere is essential for life – it keeps Earth’s temperatures from excessive heating during the day and cooling during the night.• Blocks out UV radiation which causes skin cancer. Spheres of the Earth 2.1 |
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What is the Lithosphere? |
Definition: the Earth’s solid outer shell. • Made up of rocks and minerals • Makes up mountains, ocean floors, and the rest of the solid part of Earth’s surface • It is 50 – 150 km thick! |
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What is the Hydrosphere? |
Definition: all of the Earth’s water in solid, liquid, and gas form, above and below the Earth’s surface. |
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Biotic factors |
Definition: the LIVING things in an ecosystem which includes: all organisms, their remains, and their products and wastes. |
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Abiotic factors |
Definition: the NON-living components of an ecosystem which includes physical and chemical components such as temperature, wind, water, minerals and air. |
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Radiant energy |
Defenition: energy radiated from the sun, provides most of the energy needed by organisms • Invisible radiant energy: ultraviolet • Visible radiant energy: light |
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Thermal energy |
Definition: energy transferred during heating or cooling. • 70% of radiant energy is absorbed by lithosphere and hydrosphere and converted to thermal energy. • 30% of radiant energy is reflected back into space. |
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Chemical energy |
Definition: energy necessary for organisms to move, grow, and reproduce. As it is used it must be replaced. |
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Photosynthesis |
Defenition: Greenplants chemically changing the Sun’s light energy into chemical energy. It is stored in the form of sugar. |
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Stored chemical energy |
• Sugar known also as Glucose – formula C6H12O6 • Primarily used forENERGY • Also, building materials – Glucose rearranged to form carbohydrates for cellulose in cell walls – Glucose may bond with nitrogen to form proteins |
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Cellular respiration |
Releasing chemical energy that is stored in the form of sugar to fuel all life functions. functions. |
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Nutrients |
• Nutrients are substances that an organism uses to build and repair the cells of it’s body • are cycled through ecosystems (recycled), energy comes from the sun and leaves as heat (not recycled) • Think about the energy discussed previously – The particles that make up matter (water and nutrients) cannot be created or destroyed |
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The water cycle |
• Water moves through entire biosphere • Liquid water evaporates, forming watervapour • Watervapourcondenses, returns to earth as rain, hail, or snow • Water enters soil, groundwater, lakes, rivers or oceans • Water that plants take in is released by transpiration |
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The Carbon cycle |
• Carbon moves between abiotic and biotic parts of an ecosystem – All living things contain carbon • Most of the exchange occurs between photosynthesizing plants andmicro- organisms • Carbon is present in the air as carbon dioxide which is used by plants and algae to make food (sugar) • Organismsbreak down sugar molecules made by plants to get energy for growth, repair, and reproduction … CO2is then released as waste |
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Ecological niche |
The function species serves in its ecosystem, including what it eats, what eats it, and how it behaves. |
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Food webs |
• A food webis a more accurate, but still incomplete, way to illustrate feeding relationships. • Complex food webs are usually more stable than simple food webs, because species do not depend on just one source of food |
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Ecological pyramids |
• Ecological pyramidsdisplay relationships between trophic levels in ecosystems. • An ecological pyramid can show energy, numbers, orbiomass. • Biomass is the mass of living organisms in a given area. |
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Energy pyramid |
• An energy pyramid represents the amount of energy available at each level. • The amount of energy decreases at each level because some energy is used by the organisms, and some energy is lost to the environment. • Only about 10 % of the energy taken in by individuals at onetrophiclevel is passed on to individuals at the next level. |
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Numbers and Biomass pyramid |
• A numbers pyramid illustrates the relative numbers of organisms at each level.• A biomass pyramid illustrates the total mass of all individuals at each level.• Unlike energy pyramids, pyramids of numbers or biomass do not always decrease in size from lower to higher levels. When organisms die, the carbon molecules become part of the soil • They are then broken down by fungi, bacteria, and other decomposers and the CO2is released into the air • The remains of some dead organisms may gradually be changed into fossil fuels (coal, gas, and oil) |
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How humans alter the carbon cycle |
• Burning fossil fuels and wood releases CO2into the atmosphere • The concentration of CO2in the atmosphere is now higher than it has been in the past 800,000 years!!! – Is causing global climate change • Has the potential to alter abiotic factors such as temperature and water levels |
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The nitrogen cycle |
• Burning fossil fuels and wood releases CO2into the atmosphere • The concentration of CO2in the atmosphere is now higher than it has been in the past 800,000 years!!! – Is causing global climate change • Has the potential to alter abiotic factors such as temperature and water levels • A dead organism’s nitrogen compounds are used by decomposers or released back into the environment • They are recycled by micro-organisms in the soil or are converted back into NO2bydenitrifying bacteriaand released into the atmosphere • Humans add nitrogen to soil as fertilizer |
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Limiting factor |
any factor that restricts the size of the population Limiting factors may be biotic or abiotic |
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Abiotic factors |
can include light, water, nutrients, and temperature |
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Biotic factors |
involve interactions between individuals |
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Tolerance range |
• All species have a range within which they can survive. Near the upper and lower limits of the tolerance range, individuals experience stress. • Within a species tolerance range there is an optimal range, within which the species is best adapted. The largest and best adapted populations of a species will occur when conditions are within the optimal range (in the middle). • Each species has a tolerance range for every influence. |
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Ecosystems |
• Ecosystems come in all sizes and shapes. They can be as large as an ocean or as tiny as a water droplet. • For example, a tiny drop of water may have millions of organisms such as bacteria and algae that will interact with sunlight and other abiotic factors. • That said, there are relatively few prominent and easily recognizable types of ecosystems. These prominent types have characteristic features that are not quickly forgotten. |
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Biomes |
• A large geographical region defined byclimate(precipitation and temperature) with aspecific set of biotic and abiotic features. • Biomesare often divided into those on land and those in water. |
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Terrestrial (Land) biomes |
Ona global scale, thepattern and range of temperature and precipitationcause the establishment of ecologically similar, terrestrial regions called biomes. – there are many biomes around the world, in Canada, there are four majorterrestrialbiomes • TemperateDeciduousForest • BorealForests • Tundra • Grasslands |
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Aquatic (water) biomes |
70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water • Aquaticbiomes fall underthreecategories: 1. Marine Ecosystems 2. Freshwater Ecosystems 3. Intertidal Ecosystems |
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Marine ecosystems |
• Oceans contain salt concentrations that average 3%, which has an immense influence on the chemical and physical properties of thewater. • Marine ecosystems are vital to the biogeochemical cycles of the globe (i.e. they move nutrients around the globe, provide evaporative water for the water cycle, producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide via photosynthetic marine algae etc.) • The most active parts of marine ecosystems are located in the shallow waters near the shores which are nutrient rich and support abundant life as enough sunlight is able to penetrate to allow plants to photosynthesize and support the rest of the ecosystem. |
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Coral reefs |
• Form in warm shallow oceans and support a large variety of organisms. • Support a large touristindustry • Are extremely sensitive to changes in water temperature, acidity and pollution |
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Mangroves |
• Unusual communities located along tropical and semitropical sandy shorelines. • They contain specialized tree species adapted to live at and beyond the edge of the water. • Their prop roots grow out into the ocean and are crucial in the reduction of coastline erosion. • They are being destroyed by shoreline development |
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Fresh water ecosystems |
Consist of rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands of all different sizes.a. Riversand Streams |
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River sand streams |
• Continuously flushed with a supply of freshwater fromupstream • Organisms must swim continuously against the current or attach themselves to a fixed object. |
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Lakes and ponds |
• Classified according to their nutrient levels. • Oligotrophic– bodies of water withlownutrients that are therefore clear and deep andfavouredfor swimming andboating • Eutrophic– bodies of water with high levels of nutrients that contain many photosynthetic aquatic plants and algae which support a large biomass of consumers. They arecloudy/murkyand shallow. |
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Wetlands |
• Large areas of shallow water or saturated soils. • They are nutrient rich and support large populations of fish, amphibians, birds and insects. • Huge sponges that are important in the cleaning and filtering of water. |
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Watersheds |
• Area of land where all water drains into one river or lake. • Always flows downhill and thus is the first indicator of pollution before reaching rivers or lakes |
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Estuaries |
• Where fresh and salt water mix. • They are high in nutrients and support valuable shellfish (the Gulf of St. Lawrence is the world’s largest estuary) |
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Intertidal zone |
• Ocean coastlines that are part-time terrestrial and part-time aquatic. • Area between the low-tide and high- tidelines. • most common species: seaweeds, barnacles, sea stars and urchins with protective bodycoatings. • Extremely variable: hot and freezing temperatures, life under and above water, extreme wave action |
