Ecosystem

• Ecosystem


  a community of organisms together with the non-living components of their environment
• Ecosystem


  is an open system because it requires ongoing inputs of energy to persist
• Most ecosystems also gain nutrients from and lose nutrients to other ecosystems
• There is a one-way flow of energy into and out of an ecosystem, and a cycling of materials among organisms within it
• Food chain

  A) Producer

  B) Primary Consumer

  C) Secondary Consumer

  D) Tertiary consumer

  E) Apex Predator

  F) decomposers

  
• Most produces convert light energy into chemical bond energy
• Primary Production


  the rate at which producers capture and store energy
• Detritivores


  are consumers that eat small bits of organic remains
• Decomposers


  breaks waste and remains into inorganic components
• Food Chain


  shows one path of energy and nutrient flow among organisms
• trophic level


  position at the food chain
• Food web


  food chains within an ecosystem interconnect to form it
• grazing food chains


  herbivores eat producerss
• detrital food chains 


  producers die and are then consumed by detritivores
• Energy Pyramids and Biomass Pyramids


  graphics that show how energy and organic compounds are distributed among organisms within an ecosystem
• All energy pyramids are largest at their base
• Biogeochemical cycles can be classified as gaseous and sedimentary
• Biogeochemical can be classed as gaseous, in which its reservoir is the air and the oceans
• Biogeochemical cycles can be classed as sedimentary, in which its reservoir is Earth's crust
• Sedimentary cycles include those of iron, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur and other more-earthbound elements
• Gaseous cycles include those of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and water
• In the non-biological portion of a biogeochemical cycle an element moves among environmental reservoirs
• In the biological portion of a biogeochemical cycle, elements move through a food web
• Trophic structure

  organisms base on the amount of energy they consume
• reservoir

  a supply or a source of something
• aquifer


  rock layer that contains water and releases it in appreciable amounts
• the water cycle

  A) condensation

  B) precipitation

  C) evaporation

  D) infiltration

  
• the oceans

  the main reservoir of the water cycle
• rocks


  the main reservoir of carbon
• carbon cycle


  moves carbon mainly among seawater, the air, soils, and living organisms in an atmospheric cycle
• Carbon Dioxide


  it is one of the Greenhouse gases, which keep Earth's surface warm enough to support life
• as a result of rising fuel consumption, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing
• Carbon Cycle

  A) sunlight

  B) photosynthesis by producers

  C) Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere

  D) fossil fuel combustion

  E) Animal respiration

  F) Decomposition

  G) fossils and fossil fuels

  H) Carbon fixation by consumers

  I) plant respiration

  
• Nitrogen cycle 


  is an atmospheric cycle and air is its main reservoir
• Air is the main reservoir for denitrogen
• denitrogen 


  a gaseous form of nitrogen
• Nitrogen fixation 


  it converts denitrogen to ammonium
• Plants

  they take up ammonium and nitrates, which are produced by nitrification of ammonium
• Bacterial Denitrification

  it returns nitrogen to the air
• Nitrous oxide 


  it is the extra nitrogen that humans add to ecosystems by using synthetic fertilizer and by burning fossil fuels