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15 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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2 Parts of an Ecosystem |
Abiotic and Biotic |
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Standing State |
amount of abiotic material at any one time in an ecosystem |
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3 structural parts of Biotic material |
producer organisms (autotrophic) consumer organisms (heterotrophic) decomposer organisms |
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Examples of trophic structure |
food webs, food pyramids, chains |
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What is the biomass of standing crop? |
the amount of living material in a trophic structure |
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Interdependence in ecosystems |
each level within a strucutre is a trophic level. what happens to one will (species or trophic level) will spread to the other and so on. |
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Define evolution and how it relates to interdependence |
process of adapting and specializing in a ecosystem. This increases interdependence |
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The Calvaria Tree and Dodo bird |
Calvaria Tree - valuable hardwood Number of trees diminishing. Seed hulls too thick for plants to germinate. Softer seeds were all eaten by dodo bird. Hard seeds passed through. Seeds only got thicker and thicker |
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Why does biomass decrease (making the pyramid)? |
typically, higher the trophic level, the less the biomass it takes energy to convert energy. this leads to a 90% loss by the time another level is reached hence, only 3-5 trophic levels can exist |
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Consequence of this biomass effect? |
the higher level species are more vulnerable - if anything happens to their food source, they'll die quicker |
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With a set amount of land, which will feed more people: cattle or vegetation? |
Vegetation |
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Biomagnicifaction |
aka Funneling if a material is introduced to a low trophic level, and isn't completely broken down, whatever remains will move up the trophic levels. Because the biomass is lesser in higher levels, that means the concentration of this material is high in upper levels |
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what are the consequences of biomagnification to humans? |
because we're at the top of many food chains, we're vulnerable to certain materials that make it all the way up those chains (such as mercury) |
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Minamata Disease |
small southwestern japan populus affected by the mercury in the fish they consumed from miniamata bay symptoms included numbness, sensory disturbance, brain damage, involuntary movements, paralysis, difficulty swalling, convulsions, and death |
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Dryden Chemicals incident |
they dumped a bunch of waste in a river that runs across ontario-manitoba border. Ended up poisoning nearby people and lead to birth defencts |
