Ch. 3 Flashcards
(31 cards)
Acid deposition
Also called acid rain
Ammonification
Decomposer bacteria convert organic material into ammonia and ammonium ions
Aquifer
Groundwater storage areas
Baseline data
Current conditions
Bedrock
Below C horizon, unweathered parent material
Clay
Very small soil particles
Core
Very hot
Crust
Thin, outer section that is in lithosphere and biosphere
Denitrification
Nitrogen leaves soil as bacteria in waterlogged soil and in bottom sediment of lakes, oceans, swamps, and bogs convert NHx back into Nitrate/Nitrite and then into nitrogen gas.
Decomposers
Recycle nutrients in ecosystems by releasing enzymes that degrade dead organisms into simpler inorganic compounds that can be used by producers
Detritivores
Insects and scavengers that feed on the wastes or dead bodies of other organisms
Distribution/range
Area where we can find a species
Gaia hypothesis
Life controls the earth’s processes or that life influences the earth’s life sustaining processes
Gross primary productivity
Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass
Humus
Partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and animals and inorganic materials like clay silt and sand.
B horizon
Subsoil, mostly inorganic matter and broken down rock.
O horizon
Freshly fallen undecomposed or partially decomposed leaves twigs crop wasted animal waste fungi and other organic material.
Systems analysis
Systems measurement to data analysis to system modeling to system modeling to system optimization
Hydrothermal vents
Where bacteria survive through chemosynthesis from hydrogen sulfide
Leaching
As water seeps down, it dissolves stuff and carries it down to lower layers
Limiting factor principle
Too much or too little of any factor can limit or prevent growth of a population
Net primary productivity
Rate at which producers use photosynthesis minus rate at which they use it for aerobic respiration NPP = GPP - R
Nitrification
Soil bacteria convert Ammonia into nitrite then nitrate, which is easily taken up by plants
Nitrogen fixation
Nitrogen gas is fixed to ammonia
