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| scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment or surroundings |
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| contains the combined portions of the planet in which all life exists, including land, water, and air or atmosphere |
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| species, populations, communities, ecosystem, biome |
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| group of organisms so similar to one another that they can breed and produce fertile offspring |
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| groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area |
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| assemblages of different populations that live together in a defined area |
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| a collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving, or physical, environment |
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| a group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar dominant communities |
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| ecologists make models to gain insight into complex phenonema such as the effects of global warming on ecosystems. models consist of mathematical formulas based on data collected thru observation and experimentation |
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| main source of energy for life on Earth |
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| use energy from environment to fuel the assembly of simple inorganic compounds into complex molecules- use energy to make their own food |
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| another name for autotroph cuz they capture energy from sunlight or chemical energy to make their own food |
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| during photosynthesis, autotrophs use light energy to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy-rich carbohydrates such as sugars and starches |
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| process when organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates . performed by several types of bacteria |
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| organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply |
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*herbivores= obtain energy by eating only plants
*carnivores= eat other animals
*omnivores= eat both plants and animals
*detritivores= feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter
*decomposers= break down organic matter |
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| moves thru ecosystem in one direction, from sun or inorganic compounds to autotrophs and then to various heterotrophs |
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| energy stored by producers can be passed thru an ecosystem along a food chain, a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten |
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| links all the food webs in an ecosystem together, shows feeding relationships |
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| each step in food chain or food web. producers = first trophic level, consumers make up higher levels |
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| a diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web |
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| shows the relative amount of energy available at each trophic level. only about 10% of the energy available within one trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level. the rest is lost as heat. |
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| represents the amount of potential food available for each trophic level. total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level= biomass. greatest biomass at base of pyramid. |
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| shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level. |
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| elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere |
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| water to gas- evaporation. water enter atmosphere by evaporating from leaves of plants- transpiration. during the day, sun heats atmosphere, warm, moist air rises and cools, water vapor condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds, when clouds large, water returns earths surface as precipitation, which runs along surface of ground until it enters river or stream that carries it to ocean or lake or just seeps into soil- groundwater |
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carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere by volcanic activity, respiration, human activities, or decomposition of organic matter. plants take in carbon dioxide and use the carbon to build carbohydrates during photosynthesis, carbohydrates are passed along food webs to animals and other consumers, when compounds break down they return to atmosphere |
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| forms of nitrogen- nitrogen gas in atmosphere, nitrogen containing substances like ammonia, nitrate ions, nitrite ions in waste products or fertilizers. forms of nitrogen cycle thru biosphere. producers use them to make proteins, consumers eat producers and reuse nitrogen to make their own proteins, when organisms die, decomposers return nitrogen to soil as ammonia which is taken up again by producers |
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| some phosphate stay on land and cycles between organisms and soil. when plants absorb phosphate from soil or water, plants bind phosphate into organic compounds. organic phosphate moves thru food web, from producers to consumers, and to rest of ecosystem. |
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| only certain types of bacteria can use nitrogen gas directly. these bacteria, which live in soil and on roots of plants, convert nitrogen gas into ammonia thru nitrogen fixation |
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| when an ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient that is scarce or cycles very slowly, the substance is the limiting nutrient |
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| the rate at which organic matter is created by producers |
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