Energy Transfer - Energy and Ecosystems: Key Terms

Question 1

Biomass

Answer 1

The total mass of living material in a specific area at a given time

Question 2

Caliometry

Answer 2

A technique to estimate the chemical energy store in a dry mass

Question 3

Extracellular digestion

Answer 3

When saprobionts release enzymes externally which break down large biological molecules into smaller ones which are then absorbed by digestion or active transport

Question 4

Trophic level

Answer 4

Each stage in a food chain

Question 5

Gross primary production (GPP)

Answer 5

Total quantity of the chemical energy store in plant biomass, in a given time

Question 6

Net primary production (NPP)

Answer 6

The chemical energy store which is left when losses to respiration have been taken into account.
Gross primary production - respiratory losses

Question 7

Food chain

Answer 7

A feeding relationship with each stage referred to a trophic level

Question 8

Food web

Answer 8

How food chains link together in a habitat

Question 9

Productivity

Answer 9

The rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem

Question 10

Intensive farming

Answer 10

A type of farming which uses processes to try and make energy conversion more efficient by ensuring that as much energy from respiration as possible goes into growth rather than other activities or other organisms

Question 11

Percentage efficiency (calculation)

Answer 11

Can be calculated by:

Energy available after the transfer / energy available before the transfer) x 100

Question 12

Selective breeding

Answer 12

Breeding of organisms by human selection of parents for certain characteristics

Question 13

Saprobiontic microorganism

Answer 13

An organism that obtains its food from the dead or decaying remains (detritus) of other organisms

Question 14

Biological control

Answer 14

Controlling pests by introducing predators

Question 15

Ecosystem

Answer 15

All the living and non-living components of a particular area

Question 16

Detritivores

Answer 16

Organisms that feed on pieces of dead and decaying material and finely break it up, increasing its surface area. This helps saprophytes do their job.

Question 17

Decomposer

Answer 17

Any organism which breaks down organic matter, including saprophytes and detritivores

Question 18

Nitrogen fixation

Answer 18

Conversion of nitrogen gas into nitrogen-containing compounds, carried out by free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria and mutualistic nitrogen-fixing bacteria

Question 19

Nitrogen fixing bacteria

Answer 19

Free-living or mutualistic bacteria that carry out the process of nitrogen fixation

Question 20

Ammonification

Answer 20

Production of ammonia from organic nitrogen-containing compounds

Question 21

Nitfirication

Answer 21

Where free-living nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia into nitrites or convert nitrites into nitrates using oxidation reactions which release energy

Question 22

Dentrification

Answer 22

Where anaerobic denitrifying bacteria convert soil nitrates into nitrogen gas

Question 23

Phosphorous cycle

Answer 23

Enables the cycling of phosphorous which is an important biological element as it is a component of ATP, phospholipids and nucleic acids

Question 24

Phosphate

Answer 24

PO43- ions are how phosphorous exists mostly in the form of sedimentary rock deposits

Question 25

Weathering

Answer 25

The breakdown of rock and how phosphate ions in wastes, remains and rocks are released into oceans, lakes and soils as dissolved phosphate ions

Question 26

Mycorrhizae

Answer 26

Mutualistic association between certain types of fungi and the vast majority of plants

Question 27

Guano

Answer 27

The excrement of seabirds and bats

Question 28

Symbiotic

Answer 28

When two species live in close proximity

Question 29

Fertiliser

Answer 29

Substance added to soil to increase productivity through replenishing mineral ions

Question 30

Natural (organic) fertilisers

Answer 30

Type of fertiliser which consist of the dead and decaying remains of plants and animals as well as animal wastes such as manure, slurry and bone meal

Question 31

Artificial (inorganic) fertilisers

Answer 31

Type of fertiliser which are mined from rocks and deposits and then converted into different forms and blended together to give the appropriate balance of minerals for a particular crop

Question 32

Leaching

Answer 32

Process by which nutrients are washed from the soil into watercourses

Question 33

Euthrophication

Answer 33

Process by which nutrient concentrations increase in bodies of water

Question 34

Mutualistic relationship

Answer 34

A type of symbiotic relationship where the relationship is mutually beneficial for two organisms