Biosphere

• Equilibrium: state of balance. What affects one, affects all
• Dynamic Equilibrium: any system with constant change where components can adjust without disturbing the entire system
• 3 zones of the biosphere


  Lithosphere: Land

  Hydrosphere: water

  Atmosphere: Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide
• Atmosphere: Ozone that blocks out harmful ultraviolet radiation.
• UV Rays

  • can cause cancer by mutating DNA
• Chloroflurocarbons (CFC's): are used in aerosols, refrigerators, and air conditioners
• Indicator species: A species that is sensitive to small environmental change and can be used to determine the health of an ecosystem
• Species: A group of organisms that can breed to produce fertile offspring.
• Population: The total number of individuals of a species in a particular area at a given time.
• Community: A group of populations of different species living and interacting in the same area.
• Biodiversity: The variety of different species of organisms in an ecosystem
• Producers: Organisms that make their own food by photosynthesis. Are the source of food
• Consumers: Organisms that obtain energy from other organisms through eating them.
• Ecosystems: A community of organisms and their physical environment. Cycling of matter between abiotic and biotic components
• Autotrophs: Organisms that can make their own food from inorganic molecules, otherwise known as producers
• Heterotrophs: organisms that obtain energy from other organisms, either living or recently killed
• Chemosynthesis: The process by which organisms obtain energy from chemicals in the environment.

  The breakdown of inorganic substances to form carbohydrates
• Decomposer: heterotrophs that break down dead organic matter to release nutrients by internal digestion
• Detritus: organic material that has fallen to the sea floor and is decomposed by bacteria
• Energy Flow:

  • teritary consumers 10J
  • secondary consumers 100J
  • primary consumer 1000J
  • primary producer 10000J
• Food Chain: A sequence of trophic levels through which energy flows between organisms.
• Food Web: An interconnected network of food chains within an ecosystem.
• Trophic Level: A level in a food chain where one group feeds on another.
• Herbivore: an animal that feeds on plants
• Omnivore: an animal or person that eats a variety of food of both plant and animal origin.
• Carnivore: an animal that feeds on other animals
• 1st law of thermodynamics: energy can be transferred from one form to another but cannot be created or destroyed
• 2nd law of thermodynamics: the total amount of entropy (disorder) in any closed system always increases over time, meaning that some energy is lost as waste heat during every process
• Pyramids: show the relationship of energy in food chains
• Pyramid of numbers: actual counting of organisms
• Pyramid of biomass: the mass of dry tissue of the organisms
• Pyramid of energy: based on the amount of energy at each trophic level. Restricts the length of food chains dee to energy loss between trophic levels.
• Biological Amplification: build up of toxic chemicals in organisms as infected tissues move up the food chain resulting in an inverse pyramid
• Hydrologic cycle: the pathway of water through the biosphere.

  • precipitation falls on land and percolates (filters through soil) to the water table (underground) and it flows to larger bodies of water (runoff)
  • returns to the atmosphere by evaporation:
  • -through cell respiration (animals)
  • -and transpiration (plants)
  • Condensation is where H2O gas becomes H2O liquid
• Nitrogen cycle: The process by which nitrogen is recycled through the atmosphere, soil, and living organisms
• Nitrogen Fixation: converting nitrogen gas into usuable nitrogen ions. Nitrite, Nitrate, ammonium
• Denitrification: The process by which nitrate ions are converted into nitrogen gas
• Albedo Effect: The reflection of light from a planet's surface. Higher albedo = less energy absorption
• Carbon Cycle: The movement of carbon between the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the geosphere.

  • Autotrophs obtain CO2 by diffusion from water or atmosphere and then convert CO2 into carbohydrates by photosynthesis and chemosynthesis
  • CO2 is produced by cell respiration
• Three common forms of carbon storage:

  1. living organisms
  2. peat, forms when organic matter is not fully decomposed in water-logged soils
  3. Partially decomposed organic matter from past geological eras that are converted to fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas