Ch 6: Ecosystems

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Created by
Savannah Schultz

Cards (24)

  • Disease ecology: effects of host-pathogen interactions
  • Productivity: source of energy for all species emerges from autotrophs that get their energy from the sun
  • Energy flow: movement of energy through the ecosystem
  • Food chain: linear depiction of energy flow
  • Each feeding level in a chain is a trophic level
  • Relationships are interconnected so a food web is more correct
  • Trophic-level transfer is described as the amount of energy at one trophic level that is acquired by the trophic level above and incorporated into biomass
  • Average of 10% loss between levels
  • Some marine food chains experience a 30% loss between levels
  • Trophic-level transfer efficiency is low for two reasons: 1) Many organisms can't digest all of their prey 2) Much assimilated energy is lost as heat (warm blooded animals burn a lot of energy)
  • Trophic-level transfer efficiency limits the number of trophic levels in a food web
  • Think about your ecological footprint: it takes a lot less energy to make a salad compared to steak
  • DDT is a fat soluble molecule that is stuck in all the food that we eat
  • When pesticides accumulate in organisms they then are magnified at every trophic level
  • What is the safest trophic level to eat?
    Anything that doesn't have fat cells, producers
  • Polar vortex: A large area of low pressure that moves across the northern hemisphere in winter due to melting ice caps
  • Climate change focuses on rates of CO2 production, it is not slowing down
  • Solar energy is not proof for climate change since they are not related, it is often used though
  • Burning fossil fuel produces CO2 that is directly related to climate change
  • There are natural cycles of temperature but we are at much higher projected levels right now
  • High temperature changes can alter the sex that is produced in some amphibians/animals
  • Warm temperatures melt ice causing sea levels to rise and cause a loss of land
  • CO2 dissolves in the ocean to make carbonic acid and lower the pH
  • A lower pH in the ocean disrupts the entire marine food web