Chap 55 Ecosystems

Front 1

ecosystem

Back 1

the sum of all the organisms living within its boundaries and all the abiotic factors with which they interact

Front 2

describe the trophic leves in a food web

Back 2

Primary producers-supports all others consists of autotrophs. Primary consumers- herbivores, which eat plants and other primary producers. Secondary consumers- carnivores that eat herbivores. Tertiary consumers- carnivores that eat other carnivores
Decomposers-consumers that get their energy from detritus(non living organic material, such as dead organisms)

Front 3

Gross primary production and net primary production

Back 3

the amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy by photosynthesis per unit time (GPP) equal to gross primary production minus the energy used by the primary producers for respiration (NPP)

Front 4

green world hypothesis

Back 4

terrestrial herbivores are held in check by a variety of factors. plant defenses, such as spines or noxious chemicals , limit the success of herbivores

Front 5

Carbon cycle

Back 5

photosynthess by plants and phytoplankton removes substantial amounts of atmospheric CO2 each year. This quantity is approximately equaled by CO2 added to the atmosphere through cellular respiration by producers and consumers. Biotic form=photosynthesis,Abiotic form=CO2 in atmosphere

Front 6

Phosphorus cycle

Back 6

Rain comes off the mountians into the soil,into the plants, eaten by consumers, then heads lower into the ground to be excreded by those pants into a body of water, in the exchange pool phosurphrous gets decomposed and then geological uplifted back to the atmostphere. Biotic-reservoirs/Abiotic-rocks

Front 7

Nitrogen cycle

Back 7

major pathway for nitrogen to enter an ecosystem is via nitrogen fxation, the conversion of N2 by bacteria to forms that can be used to synthesize nitrogenous organic compounds. Ammonification-decomposes organic nitrogen to ammonia. Nitrification- ammonia is converted to NO3 by nitrifying bacteria. denitrification- under anaerobic conditions, denitrifying bacteria use NO3 in their metabolism instead of O2, releasing N2 in a process biotic-nitrogen fixation/abiotic- de nitrification

Front 8

how humans have altered carbon and nitrogen cycles

Back 8

through agriculture-plowing,applied fertilizers,no plants to take up nitrates

Front 9

how humans have caused acid precip

Back 9

burning of wood and of fossil fules(coal and oil) releases oxides of sulfur and nitrogen that react with water in the atmosphere thus forming sulfuric and nirtic acid

Front 10

biological magnification

Back 10

when accumulated toxins become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web

Front 11

how humans have depleted ozone in the stratasphere

Back 11

greenhouse effect