Science Biology.

What’s the Atmosphere?

Layer of gases surrounding Earth, made up of nitrogen 78% oxygen 21% argon, water vapour, co2, etc. Insulates Earth’ blocks solar radiation

What’s the Lithospere?

Earth’s solid outer shell, 50-150 km in thickness.

What’s the Hydrospehre?

All the water (all states) above, below and on Earth’s surface. 97% in oceans.

What’s the biospehere?

Space where life can exist within the 3 spheres. Within few hundred m of the Earth’s surface.

What’s a biome?

large geographic area with charcteristic climate

What’s an ecosystem?

consists of all the living organisms in a region and their non living environment.

What are biotic factors?

Living org, and things associated with them

What are abiotic factors?

Non living components

When is an ecosystem sustainable?

if it has the ability to maintain an ecological balance over time

What’s a community?

all the organisms in a particular area.

what’s a population?

group of individuals of the same species in a particular area.

What’s ecology?

study of relationships between org and their env.

What’s a habitat?

locations where a species can live

What’s a food chain?

step-by-step sequence linking org that feed on each-other. also shows flow of energy.

what are producers?

org that produce own food

What are consumers?

org that feed on other org

What are the types of consumers?

herbivore: consumes plants only

carnivore: consumes animals only

omnivore: conusmes both

what’s detritus?

waste from plants and animals

what are decomposers?

small org that break down dead detritus. recycle material back into the env

what are predators?

animals that hunt and oat other animals for food

what’s prey?

animals that are hunted by predators

what are scavengers?

animals that feed on remains of other org

what’s energy?

capacity to do work

what’s the source of almost all energy?

radiant energy. comes from sun

where is energy sotred>

in org in chemical bonds in molecules like sugar

what’s photosynthesis?

process by which energy from the sun gets convereted into chemical energy used by all org

photosynthesis equation?

carbon dioxide + water + light energy → glucose & oxygen

what’re org that do photosynthesis?

producers

what’s cellular respiration?

action to make stored energy available for use

c.r. equation

glucose & oxygen → carbon dioxide + water + light energy

what are trophic levels?

steps in transfers of energy when an org is eaten

what’re the main trophic levels?

producers, consumers, decomposers.

how much of the energy is tranfered from one t.l. to the next

about 10%

how can you represent energy flow?

food chain/web

food chain vs food web

food chain: one org at each t.l.

food web: multiple org in each t.l.

what’re autrophs?

producers. energy from sun

what’re primary consumers?

eat autrophs

what’re secondary consumers?

eat p.c.

what’re tertiary consumers?

eat s.c.

what’s an ecological pyramid?

shows relationship between prod and cons at diff t.l. by relative amounts of energy or matter. shows which level has most energy and highest lvl of org.

what’s a pyramid of numbers?

shows the # of org in each lvl of f.c. usually # decrease.

what’s pyramid of biomass?

biomass is total mass of the organic matter at each t.l. works better to show energy flow.

what’s pyramid of energy?

shows total energy of org in food chain. best way to show flow of energy.

all matter is replaced in org over time.

yes

almost every particle in your bod is replaced at least once every ___.

7 yrs

matter cannot _______.

be created or destroyed.

what’re biogeochemical cycles?

pathways by which matter moves through Earth’s spheres.

Short term carbon cycle:

___ pull CO2 out of the ___ through___. The CO2 is then part of ___ in the producers.

Carbon moves to ___ when they eat producers.

Through ___ carbon is released back into the ___ in the form of ___.

Decomposers also release ___ back into the atmo in the form of ___.

Producers, atmo, photosynthesis, organic compound, consumers, c.r. atmo, CO2, CO2, methane.

carbon cycle in the lithosphere:

When org die, C gets stored in ___.

About ___ of soil carbon is stored in ___ forms such as ___. the rest is in ___.

Soil carbon can stay in soil for___, be washed into the ___, or released into the ___ by soil respiration.

Most of the earth’s c is stored in the ___, largely in the form of ___, and related compounds, but also as ___. much of it has been there since the formation of the earth. c in the ___ can be released naturally through volcanic activity, hot spots, etc. By burning ___ humans release C from the ___ back into the atmo.

soil, a third, inorganic, calcium carbonite, carbon cmpound, thousands of yrs, hydrosphere, lithosphere, lithosphere, limestone, f.f., lithosphere, f.f., lithosphere.

Carbon cycle in oceans:

CO2 can also ___ into water, where it’s converted into ___. some of these ___ settle and are deposited as ___. ___ are one of the most important ways that atmo…ic carbon is captured and stored for long peroids of time.

dissolve, carbonates, carbonates, sediment, oceans

Why is nitrogen important?

Required so cells can make protein, necessary for synthesis of DNA, 78% of the atmo is made up of nitrogen gas, but is unusable. living org need nitrogen in the form of nitrates.

What’s the nitrogen cycle>

the movement of nitrogen through ecosystems, soil, and the atmo.

What’s nitrogen fixation?

process by which atmo nitrogen is converted to nitrates ← usable form. occurs in: lightning. energy in lightning causes nitrogen gas to react with oxygen, producing nitrates, which dissolve in rain or surface water and enter soil. they’re then absorbed by plants through roots. and bacteria. certain types of bacteria can combine nitrogen gas with hydrogen to produce ammonia, which they can convert to nitrates through nitrification. found in soil and roots of legumes. plant gives bacteria sugar to make nitrates. bacteria makes some for themselves and plants, excess goes into soil for other plants.

What’s assimilation?

ammonium, nitrites, nitrates → organic nitrogen. Plants take nitrogen from soil by absorption through roots of nitrites or nitrates. these compounds are turned into more complicated molecules. animals get organic nitrogen through eating plants.

what’s ammonification?

organic nitrogen → ammonium. occurs when an org dies or exples waste. bacteria or fungi convert organic nitrogen into ammonium.

what’s denitrification?

nitrates → atmospheric nitrogen. opposite of nitrogen fixation. carreid out by non-oxygen using bacteria called denitrifying bacteria. they use nitrogen insted of oxygen in respiration. process speeds up when soil is acidic or water-logged.

How many spices have been discovered, and how many exist?

11.5 million, ~5 - 50 million.

What's biodiversity?

Variety of life in a particular ecosystem.

What's species richness?

Number of species in an area

What is species richness higher closer to?

Equator

How many species in rainforests in South and central America?

500 000

Factors that contribute to a decline in biodiversity?

Deforestation, urban and agricultural expansion, pollution, climate change

A species is ___ if it no longer occurs anywhere on Earth.

Extinct

Categories for species at risk?

Special concern. May become endangered or threatened because of combination of factors. Threatened. Likely to become endangered if factors don't change. Endangered. Facing imminent extinction. Extirpated. Noonger exists in specific areas.

What are non native species that spread and negatively affect the environment cakled?

Invasive species

Invasive species impacts?

Ecological, economic, tourism, health.

How can you control invasive species?

Chemical. Pesticides. (May damage other species and pollute environment.) Mechanical. Physical barriers to keep species out, or physically remove the species. Biological. Intentionally introducing othe organisms to control the invasive species.