Ecosystem

Front 1

Ecosystems

Back 1

All organic and inorganic features existing together in a particular place. (Everything is interconnected)

Front 2

Niche

Back 2

Each organism's place in the ecosystem (Causation and readjustments.)

Front 3

Biosphere

Back 3

The thin film of air, water, and earth within which we live, including the atmosphere, surrounding and subsurface waters, and the upper reaches of the earth's crust. Troposphere (Air) Hydrosphere (Water) and lithosphere (crust)

Front 4

Food Chain

Back 4

Transfer of energy and materials from organism to organism within an ecosystem.
Producers (plants)
Primary consumers (herbivores)
secondary consumers (carnivores and omnivores)

Front 5

Decomposers

Back 5

Cause the disintegration of organic matter. (animal carcasses and droppings, dead vegetation, humus)

Front 6

Nutrients

Back 6

Minerals and other elements that organisms need for growth. They are never destroyed, but can be altered for recycle

Front 7

Hydrological Cycle

Back 7

Water supply is constant (recycled)
evaporation and transpiration (from plants)
condensation and precipitation
ground water? glaciers?

80% of water used by humans for agriculture.

Front 8

Ogallala Aquifer

Back 8

area is 2 1/2 X (100,000 mi2) Ohio (41,000mi2)
corn, cotton, wheat.
40% US Beef cattle grain
Dropping water table (2-5ft/yr)
#1 Bread needs #1 wheat;
#1Beef needs #12 grain feed

Front 9

Stream Modification

Back 9

Flood control, for agriculture, for cities, generate power.
Dams, levees, canals, reservoirs

Front 10

What are the consequences of Stream Modification?

Back 10

Sediment reduction, nutrient reduction, salinity, and subsidence.

Front 11

Channelization

Back 11

Embankments, dikes, control flood, improve navigation, reduce natural storage, and aggravate flood peaks downstream.

Front 12

Water Quality- Pollution

Back 12

Natural processes usually can return water to natural state. Today introduction of metals and inorganic substances difficult or impossible to break down.

Front 13

Agriculture Sources

Back 13

14,000,000 people drink water with pesticides. Worldwide, agriculture maybe is #1 water polluter. USA 2/3's of streams are polluted. Ground water pollution in USA is 1/2.

Front 14

Eutrophication

Back 14

Overload of nutrients from fertilizers. Weed growth and algae formation. Sedimentation on lake bottoms. "dead zone" off the mississippi delta.

Front 15

Biocides

Back 15

5 Billion lbs/yr-World (U.S.A near 1/2)
pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides. DDT!

Front 16

Animal welfare

Back 16

In USA, there was about 1.5 billion tons/yr of this.

Front 17

PCB's (polychlorinatedbiphenols)

Back 17

Lubricants in pipelines, electrical devices. Dumped in rivers and enter food chain. Birth defects.

Front 18

Thermal Pollution

Back 18

Water as coolants, warmer discharged water, plants and fish migrate and die. It has less oxygen and only lower order plant and animals survive.

Front 19

Aral Sea Ecological Disaster

Back 19

Central Asia stream diversion for irrigation under Soviets, especially cotton since 1960s. There were diseases, miscarriages, birth defects and child morality.

Front 20

Acid Rain

Back 20

Great lakes and Ohio Valley to New England and Eastern Canada. Europe to Arctic (haze. Damage to lakes, streams, forests, wildlife, soils. Also nitrogen in rain can cause eutrophication. Oxides of sulfur and nitrogen.

Front 21

How much rain is normal?

Back 21

5.6 pH

Front 22

How much rain is acid rain?

Back 22

2.4 pH

Front 23

What happens today with acid rain?

Back 23

Scrubbers and lowsulfur coal is used.

Front 24

What is Ozone?

Back 24

O3. It has three parts.

Front 25

Where is the depletion of the ozone layer?

Back 25

In the stratosphere 6-15 miles.

Front 26

Ozone Pollution

Back 26

Photochemical smog is chiefly nitrogen oxides that react chemically with oxygen of water which equals nitrogen dioxide.