EESC Ch 6

consumer

consumer: An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on another organism.

limiting factor

limiting factor: The critical resource whose supply determines the population size of a given species in a given biome.

niche

niche: The role a species plays in its community, including how it gets its energy and nutrients, what habitat requirements it has, and what other species and parts of the ecosystem it interacts with.

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle: Continuous series of natural processes by which nitrogen passes from the air to the soil, to organisms, and then returns back to the air or soil through decomposition or denitrification.

nitrogen fixation

nitrogen fixation: Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into a biologically usable form, carried out by bacteria found in soil or via lightning.

nutrient cycles

nutrient cycles: Movement of life's essential chemicals or nutrients through an ecosystem (they are key examples of biogeochemical cycles).

phosphorus cycle:

phosphorus cycle: Series of natural processes by which the nutrient phosphorus moves from rock to soil or water, to living organisms, and back to the soil.

producer

producer: A photosynthetic organism that captures solar energy directly and uses it to produce its own food (sugar). Produces sugar (organic molecule) from CO2 (an inorganic molecule)

range of tolerance

range of tolerance: The range, within upper and lower limits, of a limiting factor that allows a species to survive and reproduce.

reservoirs

reservoirs (or sinks): Abiotic or biotic components of the environment that serve as storage places for cycling nutrients.

species

species: A group of plants or animals that have a high degree of similarity and can generally only interbreed among themselves.

1) Environmental gradient: 2) What can they be related to? 3) How do species vary along gradients?

1) An environmental gradient is a gradual change in abiotic factors through space (or time). 2) Environmental gradients can be related to factors such as altitude, temperature, depth, ocean proximity and soil humidity. 3) Species abundances usually change along environmental gradients in a more or less predictive way.

1) What do ecologists recognize? 2) What is each category made up of? 3) What is the difference between an ecologist, a zoologist and a botanist?

1) Ecologists recognize a nesting hierarchy of organization from the biosphere down to the individual organism. 2) Each category is made up of the smaller ones. 3) Ecologists often focus their study on populations, communities, and ecosystems, and the interactions between organisms and their surroundings. In contrast, a zoologist or botanist might focus on individual animals or plants.

1) What is the most important Carbon reservoir? 2) How do photosynthesizes use carbon? 3) Why are photosynthesizes called 'producers'?

1) For carbon, the atmosphere-where carbon is stored as CO2-is the most important reservoir. (Oceans and soil are also abiotic reservoirs for carbon. Oceans absorb CO2 directly from the atmosphere and soils accumulate it during decomposition.) 2) Plants and other photosynthesizers use carbon molecules from atmospheric CO2 to build sugar, releasing oxygen in the process. 3) Because they "produce" sugar, an organic molecule, from inorganic atmospheric CO2, they are called producers.

1) Has human activity affected the carbon in the atmosphere? 2) How?

1) Human activity has greatly altered carbon amounts in Earth's atmosphere. 2) Many of our actions (such as burning fossil fuels) increase the amount of carbon normally released into the atmosphere or degrade natural ecosystems so that less carbon is removed from the atmosphere (as in the case of deforestation).

1) How do nutrients cycle? 2) Are they stored? 3) What is the time spent stored called?

1) On Earth, nutrients cycle through both biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem-organisms, air, land, and water. 2) They are stored in abiotic or biotic parts of the environment called reservoirs, or sinks, and linger in each for various lengths of time, 3) known as residence times.

1) carbon cycle: 2) How does carbon cycle? 3) How do humans play in this cycle?

1) carbon cycle: Movement of carbon through biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem. 2) Carbon cycles via photosynthesis and cellular respiration as well as in and out of other reservoirs such as the oceans, soil, rock, and atmosphere. 3) It is also released by human actions such as fossil fuel burning.

1) What are ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES 2) What are 2 key examples?

All ecosystems function through two fundamental processes that are collectively referred to as ecosystem processes, namely nutrient cycling and energy flow.

How are biomes classified?

Biomes are classified based off precipitation and temperature

What does carbon do in the atmosphere?

Carbon in the atmosphere helps regulate the temp (w/o it the earth would be frozen

What were some challenges to the biosphere 2?

Each biome required a mind-boggling array of considerations—not only how diverse plant and animal species would interact within and across biomes, but also the nutrient requirements of each organism they planned to include.

How do ecologists asses ecosystem health?

Ecologists routinely monitor a variety of limiting factors as a way of assessing ecosystem health, but anticipating what each individual organism would need to survive before the fact proved daunting.

Are natural systems easily replicable?

Natural systems are complex and inter-related.

OXYGEN DEPLETION IN BIOSPHERE 2

OXYGEN DEPLETION IN BIOSPHERE 2 The plants in Biosphere 2 were producing oxygen, but the excessive growth of soil microbes used oxygen faster than the plants could replace it via photosynthesis. This caused the oxygen levels in the air of Biosphere 2 to fall from 21% to 14%, causing health problems for the biospherians.

What is different about the phosphorus cycle?

The phosphorus cycle is never in the atmosphere.`

in the biosphere, matter _________ whilst energy _________

Therefore we can say that matter cycles but energy flows in a one-way trip.

Two species are likely to exist together in an environment if their _________ are DISSIMILAR.

Two species are likely to exist together in an environment if their NICHES are DISSIMILAR.

When ___ gas is fixed it forms ____ or ____. How?

When N2 gas is fixed it forms NH3 or NO3. Via nitrogen fixing bacteria or lightening.

abiotic

abiotic: The nonliving components of an ecosystem, such as rainfall and mineral composition of the soil.

biomass

biomass: The sum of all organic material—plant and animal matter—that make up an ecosystem.

biome

biome: One of many distinctive types of ecosystems determined by climate and identified by the predominant vegetation and organisms that have adapted to live there. TEMPERATURE AND WATER!

biosphere

biosphere: The sum total of all of Earth's ecosystems.

biotic

biotic: The living (organic) components of an ecosystem, such as the plants and animals and their waste (dead leaves, feces).

ecosystem

ecosystem: All of the organisms in a given area plus the physical environment in which, and with which, they interact.

Energy flow:

energy flow: The one-way passage of energy through an ecosystem.

habitat

habitat: The physical environment in which, and with which, individuals of a particular species can be found.