Ecosystem Fundamentals
A community of living organisms interacting with each other and their non-living physical environment
What is an ecosystem?
Organisms that use sunlight to produce their own food
What are producers?
A linear diagram that shows the one-way flow of energy from one organism to another as they eat and are eaten?
What is a food chain?
The term for each layer in a food chain or energy pyramid
What is a trophic level?
Temporary events like hurricanes, wildfires, deforestation, or oil spills that disrupt ecosystem structure and resources
What are ecosystem disturbances?
The living or once-living parts of an ecosystem, such as plants, animals, and fungi
What are biotic factors?
Organisms like cows, lions, and bears that must eat other living things to obtain energy?
What are consumers?
A complex diagram made up of many interconnected food chains that displays all feeding relationships in an ecosystem
What is a food web?
Organisms that occupy the second trophic level because they eat primary producers directly
What are primary consumers?
The three main parameters used t evaluate a disturbance: how severe is it is, how large an area it covers, and how frequently is recurs.
What are intensity, scale and frequency?
The non-living physical parts of an ecosystem, such as sunlight, water, and temperature
What are abiotic factors?
Organisms like mushrooms and earthworms that break down organic waste to recycle nutrients back into the soil
What are decomposers?
The precise direction arrows must point in a food be diagram.
What is toward the organism receiving the energy?
The rule stating that only a tiny fraction of energy is passed up to the next trophic level, while 90% is lost as metabolic heat and waste?
What is the 10% rule?
An ecosystems ability to resist change during a disturbance, combined with its capacity to bounce back to its original state forward
What are resistance and resilience?
Of these four items-sunlight, bacteria, soil and fallen leaves- these two are classified as biotic
What are bacteria and fallen leaves?
The biological reason two different species occupying the same exact niche in the same space cannot coexist peacefully
What is competition over limited resources?
In the relationship grass> grasshopper, this is what the arrow explicitly represents
What is the flow of chemical energy from the grass into the grasshopper?
If producers at trophic level 1 capture 5,000 joules of energy, this is the amount of energy available to secondary consumers at Trophic level 3.
What is 50 joules?
Ecological succession that occurs on newly formed, bare rock where no initial soil exists
What is primary succession?
The main difference between these two concepts: one is the physical place where an organism lives, while the other is its role or job in the ecosystem
What is the difference between a habitat and a Niche?
In a pond with algae, frogs, and fungi: the specific biological roles played by each of these three organisms in order.
What are producer, consumer, and decomposer?
The correct order of a food chain containing a frog, the sun, a hawk, grass, and a grasshopper.
What is sun > grass >grasshopper>frog> hawk?
The structural reason energy pyramids always get narrower near thee top, limiting the number of top predators in an ecosystem
What is energy loss at each level (90% lost) leaving too little energy to support large populations at high trophic levels?
Organisms like lichens and moss that colonize bare rock, breaking down to create the initial soil layer for future plants.
What are pioneer species?