B17 Flashcards
Flod chains always start with a
Producer
Producers make their own food using energy
From the sun. Are usually green plants or algae- make glucose by photosynthesis.
When a green plant produces glucose, some of if is used to make
Other biological molecules in the plant, there are the plant’s biomass - the mass of living material. Biomass can be thought of energy stored in a plant.
Energy is transferred through living organisms
In an ecosystem when organisms eat other organisms.
Prodcuers are eaten by
Primary consumers. Primary consumers are eaten by secondsru consumers and they are eaten by tertiary consumers (apex predators)
Feeding relationships within a community can be represented by
food chains
Gardeners and farmers try to provide optimum conditions for rapid decay of waste biological material. The compost produced is used as a
natural fertiliser for growing garden plants or crops
Anaerobic decay produces methane gas. Biogas generators can be used to produce
methane gas as a fuel.
Living things are made up of materials they take from the world around them
- So things like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen from the soil and air get passed up the food chain.
- These materials are returned to envrionment in waste products, or at death or decay.
- materials decay cause they are broken down by microogranisms.
- faster in warm, moist,aerobic as microorganisms are more active in those conditions
- decay puts the stuff plants need to grow back into the soil.
- there is a constant cycle happening as the materials taken out and used ar enalamced by the ones put back in.
Environmental changes affect the distribution of species in an ecosystem. These changes include:
• temperature
• availability of water
• composition of atmospheric gases.
The changes may be seasonal, geographic or caused by human interaction.
Trophic levels can be represented by numbers, starting at level 1 with plants and algae. Further trophic levels are numbered
subsequently according to how far the organism is along the food chain.
Level 4: Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called
tertiary consumers. Apex predators are carnivores with no predators.
Decomposers break down dead plant and animal matter by
secreting enzymes into the environment. Small soluble food molecules then diffuse into the microorganism.
Optimum conditions for rate of decay affects: (temperature)
Temperature:
- warmer temperatures make things decompose quicker as increase rate that enzymes work at. If too hot, decomposition slows down because enzymes are destroyed and the organims die. Cold temps slow rate.
Optimum conditions for rate of decay affects: (Oxygen)
Oxygen availability - organims need pxygen to respire, which fhey need to do to survive. Microorganisms involved in anaerobic decay don’t need oxygen though.
