Ecology- Chapter 1

all the interacting parts of a biological community and community's environment

• an ecosystem capable of withstanding pressure and giving support to a variety of organisms
• ex:
• more variety- tropical rain forest, ocean(lots of resources for organisms to survive)
• less variety- desert(less resources like water for the organism to use to survive)

• the living parts of an ecosystem
• plants (producer)
• animals (consumer)
• micro-organisms(consumer)
• fungi (consumer)

• the non-living parts of an ecosystem
• water
• air (oxygen)
• light
• chemical nutrients
• soil

• the hard part of Earth's surface
• includes rock and soil
• ↳within the lithosphere there is lava
• 

• all the water found on Earth
• including freshwater lakes, rivers, salt water oceans, and ground water
• 

• the layer of gases above the Earth's surface
• includes air
• 78% nitrogen(N²)
• most organisms can't use the nitrogen in the form it's exsists in the atmosphere
• 

• the regions of Earth where living organisms exist
• not separate from other abiotic spheres
• includes life in soil, water and air

• a chemical that is essential to living things and is cycled through ecosystems(some nutrients go through one of earth's spheres and other go through more than one)
• Cycles include water, nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus.

a process in which nutrient levels in aquatic ecosystems increase, leading to an increase in the populations of primary producers(plants)

• a process that changes solar energy into chemical energy
• only used in plants
• Formula:
• (word)- carbon dioxide + water ⇒ glucose + oxygen
• (chemical equation)-6CO² + 6H²0 ⇒ C6H1²06 + 60²
• 

• a category of organisms that is defined by how the organisms gain their energy
• ex. primary producer(make their own food) and consumers(must eat other organisms to get energy for survival)
• food chains can be used to show trophic levels in ecosystems
• 

• the total mass of living organisms in a defined group or area
• Food pyramids can be used to show how energy is stored in biomass as it moves through trophic levels in the food chain
• 

• a measure of the amount of energy or biomass transferred from one trophic level to the next higher trophic level
• The percentage is always less than 100% because organisms use most of the energy for life functions(approximately 10% of energy is passed on)
• This diagram demonstrates how energy is lost in the transfer from one organism to the next caused by not all of the animal/plant can be eaten or digested and energy is lost as heat
• 

• a process in which materials, especially toxins, are ingested by an organism at a rate greater than they are eliminated
• bioaccumulation of toxins from human made pollution can be destructive to a species(ex. DDT- agricultural insecticide and PCBs- used by industries and entered water, air and soil)

• the increase in the concentration of a toxin as it moves from one trophic level to the next
• This diagram shows the toxin being passed from one organism to the next as its energy is harvested
• 

• a process that releases energy from organic molecules in the presence of oxygen
• mostly carbohydrates
• used by most living organisms ex. Humans, bacteria, plants
• essential to life
• word equation:Glucose + oxygen ⇒ carbon dioxide + water
• Formula: C6H12O6 + 6O² ⇒ 6CO² + 6H²O
• 

• a process that releases energy from organic molecules, especially carbohydrates, in the absence of oxygen
• methane gas is released during fermentation

• atmosphere gases that prevent heat from leaving the atmosphere, thus increasing the temperature of the atmosphere
• ex. CO², methane and water vapour
• without greenhouse gases Earth's temperatures would average less than 0°
• trap heat in the atmosphere

• the warming of the Earth as a result of greenhouse gases, which trap some energy that would otherwise leave Earth
• 

• rain, snow or fog that is unnaturally acidic due to gases in the atmosphere that react with water to form acids
• burning fossil fuels releases nitrogen oxide and sulfer dioxide 
• gases combine with water in atmosphere and form nitric acid and sulfuric acid
• acids lower pH of precipitation, eventually descends as acid precipitation