APES

• Ecosystem 


  location with interacting biotic and abiotic components
• Biotic


  Living component of an ecosystem
• Abiotic


  Nonliving component of an ecosystem
• Biosphere


  Region of our planet where life resisdes
• Producers/Autotrophs


  Plants use the suns energy to produce energy through photosynthesis
• Glucose


  Form of potential energy that can be used
• Cellular Respiration


  Series of chemical reactions that breaks down glucose into ATP
• Aerobic Respiration


  Glucose reacts with oxygen to create ATP
• Anaerobic Respiration


  Glucose creates ATP without oxygen
• Consumers/Heterotrophs


  Organisms that can't do photosynthesis and have to get their energy from other organisms
• Herbivors/ Primary


  Consumers that only eat producers
• Carnivors/ Secondary


  Consumers that eat primary consumers
• Tertiary Consumers


  Eat secondary consumers
• Trophic Levels


  Successive levels of organisms consuming one another
• Omnivores


  Operate at several trophic levels
• Scavengers 


  Consumes dead animals
• Detritivores

  Consume and break down dead animals
• Decomposers


  Completely breakdown dead plant and animals into smaller elements that can be recycled
• Gross Primary Productive


  Measure of solar energy that producers photosynthesize
• Net Primary Productivity


  GPP - Respiration by plants= NPP
• CO2 taken during photosynthesis


  CO2 taken up by sun + CO2 made in the dark
• Only 1% of energy from the sun is absorbed by plants
• Biomass


  Total mass of all living matter in a specific area
• Standing Crop


  Amount of biomass present in an area at a time
• Not all energy in a trophic level in usable; the energy is lost until its converted into consumer biomass
• Ecological Efficiency


  Proportion of consumed energy that is passed from trophic level to the next; normally 5% to 20%
• Biogeochemical cycles


  Movement of matter within ecosystems in biological, geological, and chemical progresses
• Pools 


  Components that contain matter
• Flows


  Processes that move matter between pools
• Water is mostly responsible for dissolving and transporting elements

• Hydrologic Cycle


  Movement of water through biosphere
• Transpiration


  Plants release water from their leaves into the atmosphere
• Water takes 3 routes after falling on land

  1. Evapotranspiration- evaporation or transpiration, water returns to atmosphere
  2. Absorbed by soil and into groundwater
  3. Moves as runoff into ocean
• Carbon Cycle- Movement of carbon around biosphere


  Organism dies-> Carbon inside becomes part of dead biomass pool-> Carbon becomes CO2 when decomposers breakdown plants-> some CO2 enters the ocean food web via algae, some dissolves in the ocean, and some is buried and turned into fossil fuels -> humans extract fossil fuels -> Carbon combusts into fires/ volcanoes which release carbon in the air
• Nitrogen Cycle- Movement of Nitrogen around biosphere

  Nitrogen Fixation; process that turns N2 from the atmosphere into Ammonia, NH3, which producers can use -> Nitrification; conversion of NH3 to a Nitrite NO2 to Nitrate NO3 -> Assimilation; producers take up N and incorporate it into their tissues -> Mineralization/ Ammonification; organisms die and N is released back into the soil, also produces NH3

  -> Denitrification; converison of NO3 to Nitrous Oxide N2O and then back to N2
• Macronutrient


  Six key elements; Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magenisum, Sulfur
• Limiting Nutrient


  Needed for growth but not available in lower amounts
• Phosphorus Cycle- Movement of Phosphorus around biosphere


  Producers assimilate P into their tissues -> Producers die and P is mineralized and returned to environment;

  only cycle without an atmospheric componenet
• Disturbance


  Events caused by physical, chemical, or biological factors that result in changes in an ecosystem
• Resistance


  Measure of how much a disturbance can change an ecosystem