unit 1 Flashcards
(41 cards)
what are producers
organisms that are able to use the sun’s energy to produce food for themselves
consumers (heterotrophs)
organisms that are not able to make their own food, must obtain these molecules by consuming other organisms
how much sun energy reaches earths surface
10^22 Joules each day
three outcomes for radiant energy
30% - reflected back to space by clouds, particles in the atmosphere or from land
19% - absorbed by gases in the atmosphere, this can heat the atmosphere
51% - reaches Earths surface, warms the planets surface
- only 1-2% of this is used for
photosynthesis
black smokers
deep sea vents spew out hydrogen sulfide-containing water that looks like clouds of dark smoke
chemosynthetic producers
heat resistant vent organisms that cannot rely on photosynthesis, microorganisms are able to split the hydrogen sulfide molecules spewing from the deep sea vents, the bacteria captures energy stored in the chemical bonds of the molecules, sulfuric acid is produced as a byproduct of this process
primary consumers
herbivores, first eaters of plants and other producers (insects, snails, clams)
secondary consumers
carnivores that eat mainly herbivores (spiders, frogs)
tertiary consumers
carnivores that eat secondary consumers (crabs and blind fish)
decomposers
obtains their energy-rich molecules by eating or absorbing leftover or waste matter, important to the biosphere because they return organic and inorganic matter to the soil, air, and water, recyclers of the biosphere
first law of thermodynamics
energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from one object to another
second law of thermodynamics
some energy is always dispersed as unusable heat
ecosystem
made up of all the organisms that live in an area and the physical environment of that area
radio synthesis
microorganisms converting energy from decaying radioactive material into chemical energy
tropic level
a feeding level through which energy and matter are transferred
first trophic level
provides all the chemical energy required to fuel the other trophic levels, consists or producers
food chain
model that shows the linear pathways through which food is transferred from producers to primary consumers to higher trophic levels
food web
model of food (energy) transfer in an ecosystem that shows the connections among food chains
energy transfer
the length of a food chain has limits because the laws of thermodynamics limit the amount of energy that can be transferred from one trophic level to another
rule of 10
only 10% of the energy at one trophic level is transferred to the next trophic level
how organisms can be identified by
-how they obtain food (producers, herbivores, carnivores)
-trophic levels (define feeding relationships)
-role in ecosystem (primary consumers, secondary consumers)
how energy is lost at each level
-life functions
-lost heat
-lost to waste (poop)
ecological pyramids
models of feeding relationships
pyramid of numbers
shows how many organisms are at each trophic level, can be inverted if producers are large in size ex.) trees vs. grass
