Ecosystems and Energy Lecture 4

Question 1

What is ecology?

Answer 1

study of interactions among and between organisms in their abiotic environment

Question 2

What is biotic?

Answer 2

living environment (includes all organisms)

Question 3

What is abiotic?

Answer 3

non-living or physical environment

Question 4

What are ecologists interested in?

Answer 4

levels of life above the organism-level

Question 5

What is a species?

Answer 5

group of similar organisms who breed and make offspring

Question 6

What is a population?

Answer 6

group the same species living in the same area

Question 7

What is a community?

Answer 7

populations of different species that live in the same area

Question 8

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 8

a community and its abiotic environment

Question 9

What is a landscape?

Answer 9

several interacting ecosystems

Question 10

What does the biosphere contain?

Answer 10

earth’s communities, ecosystems, and landscapes

Question 11

Where is the biosphere?

Answer 11

lies within and derives energy and elements from the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere

Question 12

What is energy

Answer 12

ability or capacity to do work

Question 13

What are the types of energy?

Answer 13

chemical, thermal, mechanical, nuclear, electrical, radiant, solar

Question 14

What is chemical energy?

Answer 14

energy is stored in the bonds of molecules

Question 15

What is thermal energy?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is mechanical energy?

Answer 16

energy in the movement of matter

Question 17

What is nuclear energy?

Answer 17

energy stored in atomic nuclei

Question 18

What is electrical energy?

Answer 18

energy that flows as charged particles

Question 19

What is radiant energy?

Answer 19

energy transmitted as electromagnetic waves

Question 20

What is solar energy?

Answer 20

radiant energy from the sun

Question 21

What is the primary energy source on earth?

Answer 21

solar radiation

Question 22

What do plants do with solar radiation?

Answer 22

turn it into chemical energy

Question 23

What is potential energy?

Answer 23

stored energy

Question 24

What is kinetic energy?

Answer 24

energy of motion

Question 25

What is thermodynamics?

Answer 25

study of energy and its transformations

Question 26

What is a closed system (rare in nature)?

Answer 26

energy is not exchanged between a closed system and its surroundings

Question 27

What is an open system (common in nature)?

Answer 27

energy is exchanged between an open system and its surroundings

Question 28

What is the first law of thermodynamics?

Answer 28

energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change from one form to another

Question 29

What is the second law of thermodynamics?

Answer 29

when energy is converted from on form to another, some of it is degraded to heat (heat is highly disorganized)

Question 30

How does the 1st law of thermodynamics apply to ecology?

Answer 30

organisms cannot create energy for life, they must instead capture energy from the environment to do biological work

Question 31

How does the 2nd law of thermodynamics apply to ecology?

Answer 31

when organisms capture energy from the environment, most of the energy is dispersed as heat

Question 32

What is photosynthesis?

Answer 32

energy from the sun (radiant energy) is transformed into chemical energy of carbohydrate (sugar) molecules

Question 33

What is cellular respiration?

Answer 33

chemical energy is released within cells of plants and animals that is then used for biological work

Question 34

What are ecological pyramids?

Answer 34

graphically represent the relative energy value of each trophic level

Question 35

What are the three main types of ecological pyramids?

Answer 35

pyramid of.... numbers, biomass, and energy

Question 36

What is a pyramid of numbers?

Answer 36

illustrates the number of organisms at each tropic level

Question 37

What doesn't the pyramid of numbers indicate?

Answer 37

biomass of organisms at each level and amount of energy transferred between levels

Question 38

What is a pyramid of biomass?

Answer 38

illustrates the total biomass at each successive trophic level

Question 39

What is biomass?

Answer 39

measure of the total amount of living material

Question 40

How much reduction of biomass is there through trophic levels?

Answer 40

90% reduction (100 to 10)

Question 41

What is a pyramid of energy?

Answer 41

illustrates how each energy is present at each trophic level and how much is transferred to the next level

Question 42

What is Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) - producers?

Answer 42

total amount of energy that plants capture as sugars over a period of time

Question 43

What is cellular respiration (CR)-producers?

Answer 43

Sugars are metabolized by plant to provide energy for plant work

Question 44

What is Net Primary Productivity (NPP)-producers?

Answer 44

Plant growth per unit area per time (Only NPP is available as food to organisms)

Question 45

What is Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)- ecosystems?

Answer 45

Total amount of energy that autotrophs within an ecosystem capture

Question 46

What is Ecosystem Respiration (ER)- ecosystems?

Answer 46

Energy loss from metabolism of both autotrophs and heterotrophs in an ecosystem

Question 47

What is Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP)?

Answer 47

NEP= GPP-ER

Question 48

What happens in the global carbon cycle?

Answer 48

1. 50% of GPP is used for plant cellular respiration and the rest goes into new growth (NPP) 2. 80% of annual NPP is returned to the atmosphere by ecosystem respirations

Question 49

What is net ecosystem production (NEP)?

Answer 49

remainder of biomass that builds up on the site after all these losses have been subtracted

Question 50

What is left after fire an other disturbances?

Answer 50

net biome production (NBP)

Question 51

What do humans consume a lot of?

Answer 51

global NPP (consumption is 30% but we only make up .5% of biomass)