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Flashcards by Natasha Gidluck, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Natasha Gidluck
almost 7 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Energy Flow | Most energy comes from the sun and passes through producers, consumers and decomposers |
| Producers | Also called autotrophs or photo-autotrophs because they turn energy from the sun into usable energy--such as glucose which becomes ATP after cellular respiration. |
| Consumers | Also called heterotrophs and can be classified as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores. They eat producers or other consumers. Depending on where they are in the food chain, they are classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. |
| Waste Products | Every step of the food chain has heat and waste contribute to the energy loss. Decomposers take some of this energy and can use it to live off of, helping the cycle continue. |
| Chemosynthesis | The process that some producers use when they get energy from chemical sources and not the sun. Occurs in areas in the ocean near volcanic vents |
| Albedo | The amount of light that a substance reflects. On a scale from 0-1. Light substances have a high albedo and darker substances have a lower albedo. |
| Biomass | The mass of an object after it is drained of water. Only the dry mass is included. |
| GPP | Gross Primary Production is the total amount of organic material produced by plants |
| NPP | Net Primary Production is the amount of biomass in each energy level for the consumers |
| Ecological Pyramids | A way to represent the energy transfer in trophic levels |
| Pyramid of Numbers | Shows the number of each organism during the linear food chain (obtained from sampling). |
| Pyramid of Biomass | Represents the relative mass of each organisms in the food chain. Helpful to record overall size rather than just the amount. |
| Pyramid of Energy | Records the amount of energy each trophic level has in kilojoules |
| Trophic Level | The different feeding stages of food chains |
| Biomagnification | When a substance increases in concentration as it moves up a food chain or food web. |
| Cycles of Matter | The hydrologic (water), nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorous cycles are common chemical energy cycles that occur in all ecosystems. |
| Hydrologic Cycle | Consists of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and infiltration. Moves through the atmosphere, bodies of water, and the soil. |
| Nitrogen Cycle | Uses bacteria to complete the processes. Nitrogen is turned into ammonia through Nitrogen Fixation, then the ammonia becomes nitrate (NO3) through Nitrification. Passes through plants, animals, (assimilation) and eventually waste. Decomposers use ammoniafication to turn it back into ammonia and repeat. Bacteria can release nitrates back into the atmosphere using denitrification. |
| Carbon Cycle | Mainly passes through plants, but also heterotrophs. Once photosynthesis takes carbon in, it saves it until death. Decomposers and some plants release it as part of cellular respiration. There are human contributions to the carbon in the atmosphere due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels. |
| Sulfur Cycle | Occurs in all different environments, including the atmosphere, water bodies, soil, decomposers, producers and consumers. Geologic uplifting, groundwater, volcanoes or other sources release sulfur dioxide into the air, where it becomes sulphate and travels into the water or soil. In soil, the bacteria turn it into different forms of sulfur, also obtaining some from the decay of plant and animal life. It then goes to the soil or ocean, where the process is repeated. In the ocean, it forms as sea salt, and can be released back into the air like with soil. |
| Phosphorous Cycle | Occurs mainly in aquatic ecosystems but also travels in the soil and atmosphere. Phosphate in the soil (from decomposition of animal and plant matter) leaches into water. It undergoes chemical precipitation from the surface of the water, and sinks to the rock bed, where sedimentation occurs. Geological uplifting brings it to the surface, gets in atmosphere and comes down as rain, where it stays in some rocks. Weathering causes phosphate to come out of the rocks and back into the water through streams, repeating the cycle. |
| Disruptions of a Cycle | When an element is added or the cycle is modified, causing it to continue with the changes and ultimately killing the ecosystem. Occurs in all cycles inevitably, including the water, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur and phosphorous cycles. |
| Disruptions to the Carbon Cycle | The burning of fossil fuels causes the greenhouse effect, trapping heat in the earths atmosphere and increasing the global temperature. |
| Disruptions to the Nitrogen Cycle | Excess waste or fertilizer cause algal blooms, though to a lesser extent than phosphorous. |
| Disruptions to the Phosphorous Cycle | Excess waste or fertilizer causes lots of plant growth, promoting algae expansion and blocking out sunlight. This causes plants to stop performing photosynthesis and die, decreasing oxygen levels. Animals die and decomposers thrive. This is called an algal bloom. |
| Disruptions to the Sulfur Cycle | When too many fossil fuels are burned and sulfur dioxide is released, forming clouds and coming down as acid rain, which kills the ecosystems in bodies of water due to the acidity. This is called acid deposition. |
| Algal Bloom | When there are too many nutrients (PO4, NO3) and algae thrives, covering the top of the water. Plants stop photosynthesizing, decreasing oxygen and killing the animals. The decomposers use the oxygen as well and thrive. |
| Acid Deposition | When there is precipitation that is more acidic than normal due to sulfur cycle disruptions. The acid accumulates in the bodies of water, killing the organisms that live in it. |
| Species Identification | -Physical traits and general image -Same DNA or # of chromosomes -Success of reproduction with species -Acceptable behaviour in society |
| Classification | A method of organizing the living species: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species |
| Binomial Naming | Includes the Genus and Species names in Latin so that no countries are offended. |
| Dichotomous Keys | A tool to identify unknowns singularly by identifying physical traits until the object is specified |
| Evolution | Mutation and sex add variation to a gene pool, and selection removes variation, creating new versions of the gene pool that then go through the same process. |
| Buffon | Came up with the idea that organisms change over time. |
| Cuvier | Was a palaeontologist who knew that dinosaurs were extinct and therefore the species did change over time and were different. There were also more of them. |
| Lyll | Was a geologist that found that the earth was old and is continually changing. |
| Lamarck | Thought that organisms could pass on acquired traits through sexual reproduction. |
| Darwin | Naturalist who sailed across the world in the British Navy and collected plants and animals. Discovered that species can evolve over time into new species with similar traits. |
| 5 Facts of Evolution | 1. Organisms vary in a population 2. Too many offspring are produced 3. Struggle for survival and reproduction 4. Good genetics stay, bad are removed 5. Gene pools and populations change |
| Selection Pressures | Are very subtle and contradictory, can be stabilizing, directional, or disruptive and are situation dependent. They are constantly changing. |
| Microevolution | Small changes that occur over long periods of time. Can morph into macroevolution. |
| Macroevolution | Big changes that can occur over longer periods of time. |
| A.R. Wallace | Traveled the world mainly in the tropics and collected many animal specimens-many of which burned during the fire of his ship. Vowed never to sail again but did anyway. Came up with the same concepts as Darwin about the changing gene pools. |
| Fitness | The ability an individual has to produce with others of the same species. |
| Allopatric Speciation | When the population is physically separated, leading to accumulated changes in each group that eventually create such differences that the two can no longer reproduce with each other. |
| Reproductive Barrier | When two variations of the same species are unable to reproduce with each other because of a geographic separation, gradually causing them to become two different species. |
| Divergent Evolution | When an ancestral group diverges into two groups for some reason such as a physical barrier, causing speciation. |
| Adaptive Radiation | When many new species are formed from one parent species due to a sudden change in the environment, causing speciation. |
| Sequential Evolution | When a single species gradually forms into the new variation, making a linear and simple chain, and not causing speciation. |
| Rate of Evolution | Can occur gradually or in short periods of time with lots of changes. Called Gradualism and Punctuated Equilibrium. Results from the rate of evolution are usually only seen over millions of years. |
| Gradualism | A constant rate of evolution |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | Periods of rapid evolution followed by stability |
| Stabilizing Selection | When opposite sides of a species spectrum are killed off and only the middle portion progress. |
| Directional Selection | When one side of the species spectrum are killed off and the other parts are allowed to progress. |
| Disruptive Selection | When the middle portion of the species spectrum is killed of and either side is able to progress. |
| Prezygotic Reproductive Barrier | When two organisms are not able to produce offspring before fertilization--often due to physical differences or geographic separation. |
| Post zygotic Reproductive Barrier | When reproduction has failed after fertilization--often resulting in offspring with low fitness or a low rate of survival. |
| Evidence of Evolution | -Common ancestors -Homologous Structures -Adaptations and new species -Biogeography -Embryology -Genetics and DNA |
| Sexual Selection | When predominately females choose traits in mates that are not based on fitness or are obvious. |
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