Chapter 3

Question 1

Whole mass of air surrounding the earth.

Answer 1

Atmosphere

Question 2

Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains 75% of the mass of earth’s air and extends about 17 kilometers (11 miles) above sea level. Where weather happens

Answer 2

Troposphere

Question 3

Gases in the earth’s lower atmosphere (troposphere) that cause the greenhouse effect. Examples include carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide

Answer 3

Greenhouse Gases

Question 4

Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48 kilometers (11-30 miles) above the earth’s surface. it contains small amounts of gaseous ozone which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun.

Answer 4

Stratosphere

Question 5

Earth’s liquid water, frozen water, and water vapor in the atmosphere.

Answer 5

Hydrosphere

Question 6

Earth’s intensely hot core, which mantle composed mostly of rock, and thin outer crust that contains most of the earth’s rock, soil, and sediment.

Answer 6

Geosphere

Question 7

Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, an lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments on the bottoms of oceans and other bodies of water) where life is found.

Answer 7

Biosphere

Question 8

Natural effect that releases heat in the atmosphere near the earth’s surface. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and other gases in the lower atmosphere absorb some of the infrared radiation radiated by the earth’s surface. Their molecules vibrate and transform the absorbed energy into longer-wavelength infrared radiation in the atmosphere. If the atmospheric concentrations of these greenhouse gases increase and other natural processes do not remove them, the average temperature of the lower atmosphere will increase

Answer 8

Natural Greenhouse Effect

Question 9

Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.

Answer 9

Ecology

Question 10

Any form of life

Answer 10

Organisms

Question 11

Group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area

Answer 11

Populations

Question 12

Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time

Answer 12

Communities

Question 13

One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment

Answer 13

Ecosystems

Question 14

All organisms that are the same number of energy transfers away from the original source of energy that enters an ecosystem.

Answer 14

Trophic Level

Question 15

Organism that uses solar energy or chemical energy to manufacture the organic compounds it needs as nutrients from simple inorganic compounds obtained from its environment

Answer 15

Producers

Question 16

Complex process that takes place in cells of green plants. Radiant energy from the sun is used to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen, carbohydrates, and other nutrient molecules

Answer 16

Photosynthesis

Question 17

Process in which certain organisms extract inorganic compounds from their environment and convert them into organic nutrient compounds without the presence of sunlight

Answer 17

Chemosynthesis

Question 18

Organism that cannot synthesize the organic nutrients it needs and gets its organic nutrients by feeding on the tissues of producers or of other consumers.

Answer 18

Consumers

Question 19

Organism that feeds on some or all parts of plants or on other producers

Answer 19

Primary Consumers

Question 20

Organism that feeds only on primary consumers

Answer 20

Secondary Consumers

Question 21

Animals that feed on animal-eating animals. They feed at high trophic levels in food chains and webs.

Answer 21

Tertiary Consumers

Question 22

Organism that digests parts of dead organisms, and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms by breaking down the complex organic molecules in those materials into simpler inorganic compounds and then absorbing the soluble nutrients. Producers return most of these chemicals to the soil and water for reuse.

Answer 22

Decomposers

Question 23

Consumer organism that feeds on detritus, parts of dead organisms, and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms.

Answer 23

Detritivores

Question 24

Complex process that occurs in the cells of most living organisms, in which nutrient organic molecules such as glucose combine with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and energy

Answer 24

Aerobic Respiration

Question 25

Form of cellular respiration in which some decomposers get the energy they need through the breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen.

Answer 25

Anaerobic Respiration

Question 26

Series of organisms in which each eats or decomposes the preceding one.

Answer 26

Food Chain

Question 27

Complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships.

Answer 27

Food Web

Question 28

Organic matter produced by plants and other photosynthetic producers; total dry weight of all living organisms that can be supported at each trophic level in a food chain or web; dry weight of all organic matter in plants and animals in an ecosystem; plant materials and animal wastes used as fuel.

Answer 28

Biomass

Question 29

Diagram representing the flow of energy through each trophic level in a food chain or food web. With each energy transfer, only a small part (10%) of the usable energy entering one trophic level is transferred to the organisms at the next trophic level.

Answer 29

Pyramid of Energy Flow

Question 30

Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time.

Answer 30

Gross Primary Productivity

Question 31

Rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy; equal to the difference between the rate at which the plants in an ecosystem produce useful chemical energy and the rate at which they use some of that energy through cellular respiration

Answer 31

Net Primary Productivity

Question 32

Natural processes that recycle nutrients in various chemical forms from the nonliving environment to living organisms and then back to the nonliving environment.

Answer 32

Biogeochemical Cycles

Question 33

Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water from the environment to living organisms and then back to the environment

Answer 33

Hydrologic Cycle

Question 34

Cyclic movement of carbon in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

Answer 34

Carbon Cycle

Question 35

Cyclic movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

Answer 35

Nitrogen Cycle

Question 36

Cyclic movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

Answer 36

Phosphorus Cycle

Question 37

Cyclic movement of sulfur in various chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

Answer 37

Sulfur Cycle

Question 38

Alteration of the Hydrologic cycle by humans

Answer 38

• Withdrawal of large amounts of freshwater at rates faster than nature can replace it
• Clearing vegetation
• Increased flooding when wetlands are drained

Question 39

Additional CO2 added to the atmosphere

Answer 39

• tree clearing
• Burning of fossil fuels
• Warms the atmosphere

Question 40

Human intervention in the nitrogen cycle

Answer 40

• Additional NO and N2O in atmosphere from burning fossil fuels; also causes acid rain
• N2O to atmosphere from bacteria acting on fertilizers and manure
• destruction of forest, grasslands, and wetlands
• add excess nitrates to bodies of water
• Remove nitrogen from topsoil

Question 41

Impact of human activities for phosphorus

Answer 41

• clearing forests
• removing large amounts of phosphate from the earth to make fertilizers
• erosion leaches phosphates into streams

Question 42

Human activities affect the sulfur cycle

Answer 42

• burn sulfur-containing coal and oil
• refine sulfur-containing petroleum
• convert sulfur-containing metallic mineral ores