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Environmental Interactions Flashcards

(51 cards)

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1
Q

What is an eco system?

A

An eco system is an easily described system or area where organisms interact with their physical environment

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2
Q

What is a producer?

A

A producer is an organism which make their own food (e.g photosynthesising plants)

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3
Q

What is a consumer?

A

A consumer is an organism which eat other living things (e.g animals)

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4
Q

What is a decomposer?

A

A decomposer is an organism which secrete digestive enzymes to decay (breakdown) dead organic matter to obtain their food ; they help to recycle nutrients

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5
Q

What is a physical environment made up of?

A

All of the non-living abiotic factors which affect growth an survival of living things
-temperature
-carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations
-minerals in the soil…

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6
Q

What is a habitat?

A

Places where specific organisms live

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7
Q

What is a population?

A

A population is the total number of individuals of one species in a particular habitat at a particular time

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8
Q

How do you measure the size of a species’ population in a habitat?

A

1)calculate the area of the habitat
2)measure the number of individuals in one quadrat and repeat many times to check the result is reliable (at least 10 quadrats needed)
3)calculate the average number of individuals in a quadrat
4)calculate how many quadrats fit into the total area
5)multiply the result from step 4 by the result in step 3

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9
Q

What is a quadrat?

A

A square that you place on the ground and count the number of individual of your chosen species inside the frame, it helps to find the population

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10
Q

What is a community?

A

A community is formed by populations of all the species present in an ecosystem at a particular time

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11
Q

How do species in a community interact with each other and with the physical environment?

A

-feeding on each other (nutrients recycled)
-competition for resources (e.g food, mates or nesting sites)
-using abiotic resources (e.g using water or absorbing mineral ions from the soil

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12
Q

What do you use to show feeding relationships in an ecosystem?

A

Food chains

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13
Q

What do the arrows show in a food chain?

A

-“is eaten by”
-direction that energy and biomass moves

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14
Q

What are the stages in a food chain called?

A

Tropic levels

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15
Q

What is the first animal in food chain called?

A

Primary consumer

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16
Q

What is the second animal in a food chain called?

A

Secondary consumer

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17
Q

What are the animals after the first and second called in a food chain?

A

Tertiary consumer

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18
Q

What are food webs useful for?

A

Understanding the links between the species in a community

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19
Q

What are ecological pyramids used for?

A

To represent the relative amounts of organisms at each tropic level, they are always drawn to scale

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20
Q

What do pyramids of number show?

A

The number of each organism counted in the ecosystem, they can be in odd shapes due to different masses of organisms

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21
Q

What pyramids of biomass show?

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A

The total mass of the organisms in each tropic level, more accurate way of looking at the relative amount of organisms

22
Q

What is the unit for energy in food?

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A

Kilojoules/kJ

23
Q

What measurement is used to express the energy available at a trophic level in a particular area?

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A

Kilojoules per square metre per year (kJ / m (squared) / year)

24
Q

What do pyramids of energy show?

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A

The total energy available in each trophic level per square metre per year, there should be a decrease in energy between each trophic level

25
Why is the least efficient transfer from light energy to the producer?
-some light will miss the plant or miss the plant’s chloroplasts -some light will be reflected by the cuticle -some light has the wrong wavelength to be absorbed by chlorophyll
26
What percentage is approximately passed from one trophic level to the next?
10%
27
Why is only approximately 10% of energy passed from one trophic level to the next?
-some parts of the organism are not eaten -some parts are not digested and absorbed-they are rested as faeces -some materials are respired to release energy-the energy is used for : muscle contraction (e.g movement and breathing), maintaining a constant body temperature (in mammals and birds), synthesising biological molecules (including excretory products), movement of molecules (active transport), cell division
28
When plants photosynthesise, carbon atoms from CO2 become part of glucose molecules (which is stored as starch) in the plant. What happens to the carbon in this glucose?
-some glucose broken down by plant in respiration, carbon in the glucose becomes part of CO2 molecule again and released back into the air -some carbon compounds in plant will be eaten by animals, animals respire releasing some of it back into the air as CO2 -plant of animal dies, decomposer (bacteria and fungi)feed on them, carbon becomes part of decomposer body and when decomposer respire CO2 released into air again -fossilisation occurs when living things don’t decay fully when they die due to conditions in the soil, fossil fuels formed over millions of years by process called Locking In (includes coal, oil, natural gas and peat) -when fossil fuels burnt (combustion), CO2 released into the atmosphere
29
What does feeding and assimilation pass?
Nitrogen
30
What is the process of nitrogen fixation?
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil and roots of legume plants absorb nitrogen and reduce it to make ammonia
31
What is the process of nitrification?
Ammonia converted to nitrites and nitrates by nitrifying bacteria
32
What only part of the plant can absorb nitrates?
The roots
33
How is DNA and RNA made?
-nitrates are combined with carbohydrates to form amino-acids -made into proteins and nucleotides -joined to make DNA and RNA
34
How do animals make new proteins and DNA?
-animals eat plants -digest proteins and DNA -absorb the small soluble molecules (amino-acids and nucleotides) -use the molecules to make new proteins and DNA
35
What is saprotrophic feeding?
When a plant or animal dies it’s tissues are decomposed by bacteria and fungi (saprotrophic feeding)
36
What is released into the soil when molecules containing nitrogen are broke down by bacteria and fungi?
Ammonia
37
What is the process of denitrification?
Nitrates converted into N2 by denitrifying bacteria
38
What bacteria is involved in decomposition?
Decomposing bacteria
39
What bacteria is involved in nitrification?
Nitrifying bacteria
40
What bacteria is involved in denitrification?
Denitrifying bacteria
41
What bacteria is involved in nitrogen fixation?
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria- found in soil and in root nodules of plants
42
What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?
Because the greenhouse effect is a natural effect of gases in the atmosphere, any extra greenhouse effect caused by human activity is called the enhanced green house effect
43
What are the gases that cause more energy being held in the atmosphere by heating it?(5)
-water vapour -carbon dioxide -methane -nitrous oxides -CFCs
44
How does the atmosphere hold more energy by heating?
Some IR (infra-red) red radiation passes through the atmosphere into space, but some gases in the atmosphere absorb the IR radiation, preventing it from escaping back into space, this leads to more energy being help by the atmosphere
45
Why is the greenhouse effect essential for life on Earth?
Otherwise the planet would be frozen
46
What concentration does human activity increase?
Green house gases in the atmosphere
47
In what ways does human activity act as a source for carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas)?
-burning fossil fuels -slash and burn forest clearance
48
In what ways does human activity acts as a source for methane (greenhouse gas)?
-generated by bacteria in anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions e.g. >ruminants such as cattle produce large volumes of methane from anaerobic activity of bacteria in their gut, this largely comes out from their mouths >bacteria in waterlogged paddy fields for rice cultivation give off methane
49
In what way does human activity act as a source for nitrous oxides (greenhouse gas)?
-burning fossil fuels
50
In what ways does human activity act as a source for CFCs (greenhouse gas)?
-until 1990’s CFCs were used as a solvent for aerosols such as deodorants, they were also used in fridges and freezers -CFCs were also blamed for the hole in the ozone layer, DO NOT CONFUSE THIS EFFECT WITH THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
51
What are the potential effects of global warming?(7)
-melting of polar caps -destruction of habitats -drought and desertification -increased extreme weather events -spread of disease -change in crops -increase in heat related illness and deaths

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