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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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All nutrients flow from the nonliving components of the ecosystem in a more or less cyclic path known as?
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Biogeochemical Cycle.
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Who are the important players in all nutrient cycles?
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Green plants (which organize the nutrients into biologically useful compounds), decomposers (which return them to their simple elemental state), and air and water (which transport nutrients between the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem).
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What are the two types of biogeochemical cycles?
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Gaseous and sedimentary.
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What are the main reservoirs in the gaseous cycle?
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Atmosphere and oceans.
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True or False? Gaseous cycles are global in scope and nature.
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True.
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What are the three gases most important for life?
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Nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide.
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What are the respective stable quantities of the dominant components of the Earth's atmosphere?
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Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%), Carbon Dioxide (0.03%).
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What is the main reservoir of the sedimentary cycle?
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Soil, rocks, and minerals.
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Biogeochemincal cycles would cease without what?
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The cycling of water within the ecosystem.
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Supplemental nutrients in the soil are nutrients carried by what?
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Rain, snow, air currents, and animals.
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Precipitation brings appreciable quantities of nutrients, called What?
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Wetfall.
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Some nutrients are brought in by airborne particles and aerosols, collectively called what?
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Dryfall.
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The major sources of nutrients for aquatic life inputs from the surrounding land in the form of what?
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Drainage water, detritus, sediment, and percipitation.
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How are nutrients outputed into the ecosystem?
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Carbon is exported into the atmosphere in the form CO2 via the process of respiration, a variety of microbial and plant processes result in transformation of nutrients into a gaseous phase transported to the atmosphere. Organic matter from a forested watershed can also be carried away by surface water flowing into streams and rivers. Harvesting and fires also contribute nutrients into the ecosystem.
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What is an essential feature of all ecosystems and represents a direct link between net productivity and decomposition?
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Nutrient Cycling.
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How are nutrients recycled in terestrial ecosystems?
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Plants bridge the physical separation between the zone of decomposition at the soil surface and the zone of productivity in the plant canopy. Root systems provide access to the nutrients made available in the soil through decomposition, and the vascular system within the plant transports these nutrients to the sites of productivity (canopy).
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How are nutrients recycled in aquatic ecosystems?
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Emersed vegetation are rooted in sediments and decomposition and production are linked by plants (photosynthesis in shallow water). In deeper water, primary production is dominatd by phytoplankton (photosynthesis in deepwater). Waves in oceans stir up the sediment. When surface waters are cooler than the deep waters, turnover occurs.
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When surface waters are cooler than the deep waters, the surface waters sink forcing the deep water to the surface, this is known as?
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Turnover.
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