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Chapter 54 Test
Ecosystems
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Consists of all the organisms living in a community as well as all the abiotic factors with which they interact | Ecosystem |
| Two processes of an ecosystem | Energy flow and chemical(nutrient) cycling |
| Cannot be recycled, unlike matter | Energy |
| Flows through ecosystems | Energy |
| Cycles within ecosystems | Matter |
| Entropy in the universe is increasing, Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed | Principle of conservation and energy, 1st law of thermodynamics |
| Energy conversions cannot be completely efficient; some energy is lost as heat | Second law of thermodynamics |
| Trophic level that ultimately supports all others, consists of autotrophs | Primary producers |
| Primary producers in deep-sea hydrothermal vents | Chemosynthetic prokaryotes |
| Consumers that get their energy from detritus, end of trophic levels | Detrivores/decomposers |
| Nonliving organic material | Detritus |
| Ecosystems main decomposers | Prokaryotes and fungi |
| The amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) by autotrophs during a given time period | Primary production |
| Earth solar radiation in one day | 10^22 joules |
| Total primary production- the amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy by photosynthesis per unit time | Gross primary production (GPP) |
| Equal to GPP minus energy used for respiration; NPP=GPP-R | Net primary production (NPP) |
| The TOTAL biomass of photosynthetic autotrophs present at a given time | Standing crop |
| Amount of new biomass added at a given time | NPP |
| Element that must be added in order for production to increase in a certain area (commonly nitrogen/phosphorous) | Limiting nutrient |
| The nutrient most limiting marine production | Phosphorous and Nitrogen |
| Limiting phytoplankton growth off the shore of Long Island | Nitrogen |
| Largest areas of upwelling | Antarctic, Peru, California, western Africa |
| Nutrient-rich waters circulate to the ocean surface, make for great fishing | Upwelling |
| Eutrophos | Well-nourished |
| Sewage and fertilizer runoff from farms and yards adds large amounts of nutrients to lakes, leads to algae and cyanobacterial blooms and decreased O2 | Eutrophication |
| Rarely the limiting factor for primary production in lakes | Nitrogen |
| Nutrient that limits cyanobacterial growth | Phosphorous |
| Key factors controlling primary production in terrestrial and wetland ecosystems | Temperature and moisture |
| The annual amount of water transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape, usually measured in mm H20 per year (relation between evapotrans. and productivity) | Actual evapotranspiration |
| The amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given time period | Secondary production |
| Energy stored in biomass represented by growth and reproduction | Net secondary production |
| Total energy taken in and used for growth, respiration, and reproduction | Assimilation |
| Fraction of energy stored in food that is NOT used for respiration | Production efficiency |
| Percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next, usually 5-20% | Trophic efficiency |
| Trophic levels are stacked in blocks, with primary producers forming the foundation, shows production available at each trophic level | Pyramid of net production |
| Each tier represents the standing crop (total dry weight of all organisms) in one trophic level | Pyramid of biomass |
| standing crop biomass divided by rate of production | Turnover time |
| Size of each block is proportional to the number of individual organisms present in that trophic level | Pyramid of numbers |
| Terrestrial herbivores consume relatively little plant bimass because they are held in check by a variety of factors, including predators, parasites, and disease, consume less than 17% of producer biomass | Green world hypothesis |
| Amount of metric tons of carbon stored in the plant biomass of terrestrial ecosystems | 83X10^10 |
| Global rate of terrestrial primary production | 5x10^10 metric tons of plant biomass per year |
| Example of a herbivore completely stripping local vegetation over the short term | Gypsy moths |
| Factors of green world hypothesis | Plants have defenses against herbivores, nutrients (not energy supply) usually limit herbivores, abiotic factors limit herbivores, intraspecific competition can limit herbivore numbers, interspecific interactions keep herbivore densities in check |
| Another name for nutrient circuits, involve both biotic and abiotic components (movement of nutrients) | Biogeochemical cycles |
| Two categories of biogeochemical cycles | Global and local |
| The conversion of N2 by bacteria to forms that can be used to synthesis nitrogenous organic compounds | Nitrogen fixation |
| Decomposes organic nitrogen to NH4+ | Ammonification |
| NH4+ is converted to NO3- by nitrifying bacteria | Nitrification |
| Use NO3- in their metabolism instead of O2, releasing N2 | Denitrification |
| Increases with actual evapotranspiration | Primary production and the rate of decomposition |
| Cycling time in rain forests (little leaf litter) | Fast |
| Studied nutrient cycling in a forest ecosystem since 1963 | Herbert Bormann and Gene Likens |
| Confirmed that internal cycling within a terrestrial ecosystem conserves most of the mineral nutrients | Studies at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest |
| Main nutrient lost through agriculture, but is doubled because of humans | Nitrogen |
| The amount of added nutrient, usually nitrogen or phosphorous, that can be absorbed by plants without damaging ecosystem integrity | Critical load |
| Primary production is relatively low because the mineral nutrients required by phytoplankton are scarce | Oligotrophic lake |
| Basin and watershed characteristics result in the addition of more nutrients | Eutrophic lake |
| Sewage and factory wastes, runoff of animal waste from pastures and stockyards, and the leaching of fertilizer form agricultural, recreational, and urban areas have all overloaded many streams, rivers, and lakes with inorganic nutrients | Cultural eutrophication |
| Wiped out commercially important fishes such as blue pike, whitefish, and lake trout by the 1960s | Cultural eutrophication |
| Result of ore smelters and electrical generating plants (less than 5.6) | Acid precipitation |
| Toxins become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web | Biological magnification |
| Requires solar energy, most of which is absorbed, scattered, or reflected by our atmosphere | Primary production |
| Percentage of the visible light that strikes photosynthesizers that is used in photosynthesis | 1% |
| Amount of organic material earth creates annually | 170 Billion tons |
| Expressed as energy per unit area per time (J/M2/YR) or by vegetation added per unit area per unit time (g/m2/yr) | NPP |
| Total biomass of producers | Standing crop- do not confuse with vegetation |
| Contribute 2/3 of NPP | Terrestrial ecosystems |
| Contribute 1/3 of NPP | Marine ecosystems |
| More than 1/2 solar radiation absorbed in the 1st meter of water and only 5-10% may reach a depth of 10m in clearest water | Light limitation |
| Increase in abundance w/ depth but lack light | Nitrogen and phosphorous |
| Can be a limiting nutrient as it is needed to help the cyanobacteria that convert N2 into nitrogenous compounds | Iorn blown by winds from land to sea |
| Mainly determined by temperature and moisture (rainforest vs. desert) | Primary production for land and wetlands |
| How efficient energy transfer is | Less than 20% |
| May be inverted if producers reproduce quickly | Pyramid of biomass |
| Have a quick turnover time | Period of biomass |
| Shows number of individuals in each trophic level | Pyramid of numbers |
| May be inverted EX insects feeding on one large tree | Pyramid of numbers |
| Has implication for humans- could feed more ppl if we fed as primary consumers | Pyramid of numbers |
| Available organic material in living organic material in living organisms or detritus, unavailable organic material in fossils such as coal, oil, or peat, available inorganic materials such as air, soil, and water, unavailable inorganic materials (same) | Four major reservoirs of nutrients |
| Component in many reactions, needed for photosynthesis | Water cycle |
| Backbone of organic molecules moves from CO2 in air to carbohydrates through photosynthesis and returned through respiration | Carbon cycle |
| Part of proteins and nucleic acids trapped from air N2 by nitrogen fixation, then converted by nitrification to nitrate (NO3-) then returned by ammonification to the soil and back to N2 by denitrification | Nitrogen cycle |
| Part of nucleic acids, phospholipids, bones and teeth and does not have a gaseous stage so is only exposed through weathering, organic compounds, and mining | Phosphorous cycle |
| Can affect nutrient cycling rates | Decomposition |
| Temperate forests | Slow cycling and high litter |
| Rain forests | Fast cycling and low litter |
| Can be nutrient sinks unless returned in upwelling | Anaerobic muds |
| Compared input and outflow of nutrients through creek draining watershed | Hubbard-brook |
| Found clear-cut forests had major net losses of nitrates, calcium, potassium, and water | Hubbard-brook |
| Found that acid rain and snow had removed calcium and control experiments show it is a limiting nutrient | Hubbard-brook |
| How we-ve doubled available nitrogen | Industrial nitrogen fixation for fertilizers, growing legumes, and burning vegetation to return to the souk (more nitrogen oxides thus released into the air) |
| Spread chemicals in the wind | Tall stacks |
| Released on burning of wood and fossil fuels such as coal and oil, react with water vapor to form sulfuric and nitric acid | Sulfur and nitrogen oxides |
| Drops pH in waterways and on land leading to aquatic organism death and leaching of chemicals from soil or directly form plants | Acid precipitation |
| Dropped 31% from 1993 to 2002 | Sulfur dioxide emissions |
| Disrupt endocrine systems | PCB (Polychlorinated biphenyls) |
| Rising steadily since industrial revolution due to fossil fuel and wood combustion (trend to double amount from start of industrial revolution by 2075) | Levels of CO2) |
| Occurs from rising levels of CO2 | Increased plant productivity, spread of C3 plants such as soybeans into C4 areas such as corn (Dukes FACTS-1 Experiment) |
| Water vapor and CO2 absorb and re-reflect some infrared radiation back to earth | Greenhouse effect |
| Keeps the surface warm (Not -18 degrees C) | Greenhouse effect |
| Can study ice bubbles to see how much CO2 present before and infer temp. | Greenhouse effect |
| Surface pollutant but in the lower stratosphere absorbs UV radiation | O3 |
| Break down releasing chlorine that destroys ozone | Chloroflorocarbons |
| US and others no longer produce CFS | Montreal protocol |
| Damages of depleting ozone layer | Skin cancer, cataracts, unpredictable crop impact, damage to phytoplankton |
| 1997 pledge to reduce CO2 output by 5% | Kyoto protocol |
Created by:
AliRutherford
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