1.5-6 Decay and recycling Flashcards
What do arrows represent in food chains?
Arrows represent the flow of energy
How is energy lost in food chains?
Energy is :
- used for respiration
- used to maintain body temperature
- used for movement
- lost as heat radiated (heat loss)
- lost as faeces
- consumers do not consume all of the prey/producer so they will not gain all of the energy
What is biomass?
The total dry mass in a living organism so it is a source of energy. Biomass gets less as you move along the food chain.
Only a small amount of light energy is taken in by plants. What happens to the rest?
- Most light energy is reflected
- Some passes through the leaf
- Converted to heat energy and is lost via radiation or evaporation
‘Free range’ farming benefits:
- No heating/lighting costs
- More natural life
- Find food themselves
- Calves stay with mother longer, more natural
- Meat and eggs have more flavour
- Animals less stressed
- No buildings to keep clean
- People prepared to pay more money
- Natural food, not contaminated
‘Free range’ farming costs:
- Eggs more expensive to collect
- Less eggs/growth during winter
- Animals longer to gain weight
- More land is needed
Intensive farming benefits:
- Small space
- Easier to feed animals to maximize growth
- Little food wasted
- Cheap meat/eggs
- Fewer workers needed
Intensive farming costs:
- Small space
- Foodstuffs expensive
- Animals unnaturally behaved
- Deformed/damaged bodies
- Barns need heating/lighting
- More chance of disease
- Getting rid of waste a problem
Efficiency of food chain increased by:
- Shorten food chain-energy(biomass) lost on each stage of the food chain
- Less movement-less biomass used for movement
- Maintain temperature-less energy used to maintain temperature
What is the definition of decay?
The breakdown(digestion) of dead animal and plant material by microorganisms in order to recycle energy and nutrients, ions and elements back to the soil environment
What do microbes need?
- Moisture-hydrated and faster decay
- Food-to digest
- Oxygen-aerobic respiration
- Warmth-grow/reproduction/faster decay/enzymes
Why is decay important?
It allows the recycling of nutrients in an environment and that without, there would eventually be no life
How do microbes decay?
Microbes release enzymes which break down dead material
Describe the carbon cycle:
- CO2 removed by plants for photosynthesis
- CO2 used to make carbohydrates, fats and proteins for the plants
- Plants respire CO2 into the atmosphere
- Plants eaten by animals, carbon becomes part of the fats and proteins
- animals respire CO2 into the atmosphere
- Microorganisms feed on dead animals and plants, respire and release CO2
- Combustion of fossil fuels release CO2
