Chapter 3 Enviromental Science

Question 1

Ernst Haeckle

Answer 1

developed the concept of ecology

Question 2

Biotic Enviroment

Answer 2

“living”

includes all organisms

Question 3

Abiotic Surroundings

Answer 3

“nonliving, or physical”

includes living space, sunlight soil, wind and percipiation

Question 4

Landscape Ecology

Answer 4

the subdiscipline of ecology that studies the ecological processes that happen over large areas.
The landscape ecologists study the the connections among ecosystems found in a particular area.

Question 5

Biosphere

Answer 5

The parts in Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land surface,and soil that contain all living organisms.
-Ecologists who study the biosphere study the interrelationships among Earths atmosphere, land, water and organsims

Question 6

Hydrosphere

Answer 6

Earth’s supply of water (liquid, frozen, fresh and salt)

Question 7

Lithosphere

Answer 7

Soil and rock of Earth’s crust

Question 8

Energy

Answer 8

the capacity or ability to do work

chemical, radiant, thermal, mechanical, nuclear, and electrical.

Question 9

Chemical Energy

Answer 9

energy stored in molecules

Question 10

Radiant Energy

Answer 10

(radio waves, visible light, and X-rays)

-transmitted as electromagnetic waves

Question 11

Solar Energy

Answer 11

radiant energy from the sun (ultraviolet radiation, visible light, and infrared radiation)

Question 12

Thermal Energy

Answer 12

heat that flows from an object with a higher temp. to an object with a lower temp.

Question 13

Mechanical Energy

Answer 13

energy in the movement of matter

Question 14

Electrical Energy

Answer 14

energy that flows as charched particles

Question 15

Potential Energy

Answer 15

stored energy

Question 16

Kinectic Energy

Answer 16

energy of motion

Question 17

Nuclear Energy

Answer 17

Atomic nulei can be converted into nuclear energy

Question 18

Thermodynamics

Answer 18

the study of energy and its transformations

Question 19

Closed System

Answer 19

• self-contained and isolated
• does not exchange energy with its surroundings
• very rare

Question 20

Open System

Answer 20

exhibits and exchange of energy with its surroundings

ex. earth is an open system that is dependent on a continual supply of energy from the sun.

Question 21

First Law of Thermodynamics

Answer 21

• and organism my absorb or give energy to its surroundings but the total energy content of an organism is always the same
• the energy of any system and its surroundings is always the same
• an organism cannot produce its own energy meaning it must capture energy from the things around it.

Question 22

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Answer 22

• the amount of useable energy available to to work decreases over time

Question 23

Entropy

Answer 23

“less usable energy is more diffuse, or disorganized”
entropy is the measure of this disorder
-usable energy has a low entropy
- disorganized energy such as heat has a high entropy.
-entropy in a system increases over time

Question 24

Photosynthesis

Answer 24

the biological process in which light energy from the sun is captured and transformed into chemical energy of carbohydrate(sugar) molecules.
6CO2+12H2O+ radiant energy(sun)-C6H12O6 (sugar)+ H2O (water)+ 6O2

Question 25

Species

Answer 25

A group of similar orgaisms whose members freely interbredd with one another in the wild to produce fertile offspring. -memberos of one species generally do not interbreed with another.

Question 26

Population

Answer 26

A group of organisms that live in the same area at the same time.

Question 27

Community

Answer 27

A natural association the consisits of all the populations of different species that live and interact within an area at the same time.

Question 28

Ecosytem

Answer 28

A community and its physical enviroment. | Species-population-community-ecosystem

Question 29

Landscape

Answer 29

A region that includes several interacting ecosystems.

Question 30

Cellular Respiration

Answer 30

through cellular respiration; the chemical energy tha plants store in carbohydrates and other molecules is released within cells of plants, animals or other organisms. -make chemical energy stored in glucose and other foods available for the cell for biological work, such as moving around, courting, and growing new cells and tissues.

Question 31

Aerobiotic Cellular Respiration

Answer 31

molecules are broken down in the presence of oxygen and water into carbon dioxide and water, with the release of energy. C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H2O- 6CO2 + 12H2O + energy

Question 32

Hydorthermal vents

Answer 32

created when slatwater is penetrated and then heated by the hot rocks below. Organisms cannot get energy from photosynthesis because that are so far down in the ocean so that eat the chemosynthetic bacteria that piles on the vents.

Question 33

Chemosynthesis

Answer 33

because organisms cannot use the process of photosynthesis that obtain the enegy by making carbohydrate molecules from inorganic raw materials by chemosynthesis.

Question 34

Biome

Answer 34

a large relatively distinct terrestrial region characterized by a similar climate, soil, plants, and animals, regardless of where it occurs on Earth; because it is so large in area, a biome encompasses many intereracting ecosystems.

Question 35

Energy Flow

Answer 35

The passage of energy in a one-way direction through an ecosystem.

Question 36

Producers/ Autotrophs

Answer 36

- "self nourishment" - most producers perform the process of photosynthesis - incorporate the chemicals in thier own bodies, becoming potential food resources for other organisms. - plants, algae, and some types of bacteria. - provide both and oxygen for the community.

Question 37

Consumers/ Heterotophs

Answer 37

- use the bodies of other oganisms as a source of food energy and bodybuilding materials. - primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers - maintain balae between producers and decomposers.

Question 38

Primary Consumers

Answer 38

consumers that eat producers | also called herbivores

Question 39

Secondary Consumers

Answer 39

-eat primary consumers | carnivores or omnivores

Question 40

Tertiary Consumers

Answer 40

eat secondary consumers | carnivores or omnivores

Question 41

Carnivores

Answer 41

animals that eat only meat

Question 42

Omnivores

Answer 42

eat both plants and animals | -Bears, pigs, and the meadow vole

Question 43

Detrivores

Answer 43

consume detrius, organic matter that includes animal carcasses, leaf litter, and feces. - Clams, snails, crabs, worms. - without them dead organisms and waste products would accumulate indefinately.

Question 44

Decomposers/ Saprotrophs

Answer 44

heterotrophs that break down dead organic material and use the decomposition products to supply themselves with energy. - release simple inorganic materials that producers can reuse. - Bacteria and fungi - without microbial decomposers, important elements such as potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus would remain permanently in dead organisms, unavailable fornew generations of organisms.

Question 45

Food Chain

Answer 45

energy flows occurs in food chains, in which energy from food passes from one organisms to the next in sequence.

Question 46

Trophic Level

Answer 46

An organism is assigned a trophic level based on the the number of energy transfer steps to that level. - producers are 1st, primary consumers are 2nd, secondary consumers are 3rd etc. - In every step in a food chain there are decomposers.

Question 47

Food Web

Answer 47

a more realistic model of the flow of energy and materials through an ecosystem. -helps us visualize feeding relationships that indicate how a community is organized.

Question 48

Krill

Answer 48

a huge population of herbivores that are timy and shrimplike. - eat marine algae - baleen whales, squid, and fish eat krill.

Question 49

Causes for collapse of Antarctic Food Web

Answer 49

- humans hunted baleen whales which al large amounts of krill but because the whales were hunted the krill population increased making other fish and squid populations increase. - because of global warming the ozone layer is thinning causing more sunlight to shine down making the ice melt, making the algae and krill populations decrease.

Question 50

Ecological Pyramids

Answer 50

graphically represent the energy values of each trophic level -three types: pyramids of numbers, biomass and energy.

Question 51

Pyramid of Numbers

Answer 51

shows the number of organisms at each trophic level in a given ecosystem. - larger numbers for a larger area for that section of the pyramid. - organisms at the bottom are most abundant. - inverted pyramids of numbers: higher trophic levels have more organisms than lower trophic levels.

Question 52

Pyramid of Biomass

Answer 52

shows the total biomass at each successive trophic level. | -usaully show a progressive reduction of biomass in succeeding trophic levels .

Question 53

Pyramid of Energy

Answer 53

illustrates the energy content of the biomass of each trophic level. - often shown as kilocalories per sq meter per year - always have large energy bases and progressively get smaller through succeeding trophic levels. - Explain why there are so few trophic levels: Food webs are short becuase of the dramatic reduction of energy content at each trophic level.

Question 54

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

Answer 54

the total amount of photsynthetic energy that plants capture and assimulate in a given period. -energy per unit area per unit time.

Question 55

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

Answer 55

the amount of biomass found in excess of the broken down by a plants cellular respiration. - Represents the rate at which this organic matter is actually incorporated into plant tissues for growth. - available as food for an ecosystem's consumers. - energy per unit area per unit time.

Question 56

Secondary Productivity

Answer 56

any energy that remains is used for growth and for production of young .

Question 57

Peter Vitousek's Research.

Answer 57

- 1986 he and colleagues at Stanford University calculated how much of the global NPP is appropriated for the human economy and therefore not transferred to other organisms. - estimated that humans use 32% of the annual NPP of land-based ecosystems.

Question 58

Stuart Rojstaczer's Research

Answer 58

- him and the colleagues at Duke univeristy reexamined Vitousek's research to find the estimation of the annual land-based NPP appropriation but with different calculations. - in the end his estimate was the same 32%.

Question 59

Hippo-Tilapia Connections

Answer 59

when hippos eat plants around a lake and then poop in the lake. -when the poop decomposes it provides nutrients for the algae to grow, which is then eaten by worms and larvea and then eaten by tilapia which are caught by fishermen.

Question 60

Sound

Answer 60

transmitted vibrations of any frequency

Question 61

Condition of energy

Answer 61

energy such as mechanical, nuclear, thermal, electrical, chemical, solar, and radiant energy.