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31 Cards in this Set
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- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Soil organism classification |
emphasize on activities rather than scientific classification |
general classification |
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fauna |
very general way to distinguish animals from flora |
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flora |
a term used distinguish all true plants including single algea |
flowers |
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eukarya |
the domain that includes all plants, animals, fungi |
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herbivores |
organism that subsist on living plants |
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detritivores |
organisms that subsist on dead plants |
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predators |
consume animals |
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fungivores |
consumes fungi |
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parasites |
live off of, but on consume other organisms |
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hetertrophs |
organisms that rely on organic compounds for their carbon and energy needs |
animals |
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Macrofauna |
All heterotrophs, largely herbivores and detritivores ( >2mm) |
Gophers, mice, ants, earthworms |
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mesofauna |
Heterotrophs (0.1-2mm) |
mites, collembola |
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Microfauna |
Detritivores, predators, fungivores, bacterivores ( Smaller than 0.1mm) |
Nematode, rotifers, protoza |
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Marcoflora |
Largely autotrophs |
Vascular plants, bryophytes |
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Microflora |
Less than 0.1mm, |
Algae, fungus, bacteria, cyanobacteria, archaea |
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Diversity is due to-- |
The nearly limitless variety of food and the wide range of habitat conditions. |
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why do soil organism tend in localized concentrations |
Favorable soil conditions: good and poor aeration, high and low acidity, cool and warm temperatures, moist and dry conditions |
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species diversity |
indicates that the organism present are fairly evenly distributed among a large number of species. |
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Functional diversity |
the capacity to utilize a wide variety of substrates and carry out a wide array of processes |
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types of diversity |
species diversity functional diversity |
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functional redundancy |
the presence of several organisms to carry out each task. |
soil stability and resilience |
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soil stability |
the ability of soil to continue to perform such functions as the "cycling of nutrients, assimilation of organic wastes, and maintainence of soil structure. |
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soil resilience |
the ability of the soil to "bounce back" to functional health after a severe disturbance has disrupted normal processes. |
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Advantages of diversity |
no single organism is likely to become completely dominant, or the loss of any one species is unlikely to cripple the entire system |
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keystone species |
species that perform certain soil processes |
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trophic level |
as one organism eats another, nutrients and energy are passed from lower trophic level to a higher one |
cows eating grass |
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Levels of the trophic levels |
Primary producers (autotrophe), primary consumers ( heterotrophe, herbivores), Predator ( consumes the producers), predators that eat predators |
plant--grasshopper--mouse--eagle--Mt lion |
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soil organism numbers are influenced primarily by |
the amount and quality of food available, physical factors (moisture and temperature), biotic factores (predation and competition), chaemical characteristics of the soil (acidity, dissolved nutrients, and salinity) |
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soil biomass |
the living fraction of the soil, is generally related to the amount of organic matter presents |
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3 importance of specific groups of soil organisms is commonly identified by |
1. the numbers of individuals in the soil 2. their weight per unit volume or area of soil 3. their metabolic activity ( measured as the amount of carbon dioxide given off in respiration. |
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autorophs |
organisms that obtain their carbon mainly from CO2 and their energy for photosynthesis or oxidation of various elements |
Plants |
