Higher Unit 3 Flashcards
What is food security?
The ability for the human population to access and use food stores
What is food sustainability?
The degree to which food security can be guaranteed
What are the 4 factors that determine food security?
+ availability
+ accessibility
+ usage
+ sustainability
What is each rank of a food chain known as
A trophic level
State the order of a food chain
Producers —> primary consumer —> secondary consumer —> tertiary consumer
How much energy is lost between tropics levels
90%
How is energy lost between trophies levels
+ heat from respiration
+ heat from undigested material
+ waste products
What is intensive farming
The act of maximising the efficiency of a small plot of land
What are the three aspects of intensive farming
+ pesticides
+ fertilisers
+ cultivars
What are pesticides
Chemical substances that reduce plant competition by killing pests and disease - promoting growth
What are fertilisers
Chemical substances that provide plants with increased nutrients - promoting growth
What are cultivars
Plant crops that have been bred to produce high yields with increased growth rates
What are the three possible fates of light, when coming into contact with a leaf
+ absorbed
+ transmitted
+ reflected
What are the three main photosynthetic pigments
+ chlorophyll a
+ chlorophyll b
+ the carotenoids
Describe the role of chlorophyll a
It absorbs blue and red colours of the visible spectrum, using their energy for photosynthesis
Describe the role of chlorophyll b
Same as chlorophyll a, but on a smaller scale
Describe the role of the carotenoids
Absorbe a wider range of light wave,entity’s and transfers the resultant energy to the chlorophylls
Why does chlorophyll have a green colour
As this is the one light wavelength that the pigments reflect instead of absorb
What is an action spectrum
A graph that shows the rate of photosynthesis at each wavelength of light, on the visible spectrum
What are the two stages of photosynthesis
+ photolysis
+ the Calvin cycle
Describe photolysis:
1: light energy is absorbed by the photosynthetic pigments
2: this energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen
3: the hydrogen is accepted by NADP, creating NADPH
4: the oxygen is released
5: ATP is created from ADP + Pi
Describe the Calvin cycle
1: CO2 combines with RuBP to form 3PG, with the help of the RuBisCo enzyme
2: 3PG creates G3P
3: G3P synthesises Glucose, before regenerating RuBP
4: ATP and ADP+ Pi repeatedly form each other
5: NADP and NADPH repeatedly form each other
What are the 4 possible fates of glucose
+ produce energy in respiration
+ converted to starch for energy storage
+ converted to cellulose in cell walls
+ passed to other biosynthetic pathways
What is a plant field trial
An experimental investigation to test the effects of treatments, that occurs outside the laboratory (in the natural world)