INTRODUCTION
Any living part of an environment
What are biotic factors?
Almost all of the energy used in ecosystems comes from this.
THE SUN
The sum of all the Earth's ecosystems in land, water, or air.
BIOSHPERE
The specific environment of an organism, both biotic and abiotic.
HABITAT
An animal that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm.
INVASIVE SPECIES
An association of living organisms and their physical environment.
ECOSYSTEM
Links all the food chains in an ecosystem together.
FOOD WEB
Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant.
TRANSPIRATION
A BIOME is a group of ecosystems classified by what two things?
CLIMATE and PLANT LIFE
Population growth that is unhindered because of the abundance of resources for an ever-increasing population.
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
A measure of the total amount of living tissue of organisms within a trophic level in an ecosystem.
BIOMASS
What are the three categories of creatures that provide balance in our ecosystems?
PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS, and DECOMPOSERS
The process by which certain gases trap heat that would otherwise escape the Earth and radiate into space.
The GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Each major biome falls into one of two categories.
TERRESTRIAL or AQUATIC
THREE kinds of Community Interaction.
COMPETITION
PREDATION
SYMBIOSIS
This organism eats secondary consumers
What is a tertiary consumer?
This is lost each time it moves up a trophic level in an ecosystem.
What is energy?
The Earth's air is made up mostly of...?
NITROGEN
What part of the Earth receives the sun's rays most directly?
EQUATOR
Mt. St. Helens eruption, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastating the wetlands, and the fires that ruined Yellowstone National Park are examples of what?
COMMUNITY DISTURBANCES
Give examples of BIOTIC factors and ABIOTIC factors.
BIOTIC: Any living part of the environment
ABIOTIC: Any nonliving physical and chemical condition
What are three types of ecological pyramids?
ENERGY PYRAMID
BIOMASS PYRAMID
PYRAMID of NUMBERS
What are FIVE kinds of cycles in the Earth's biosphere?
The WATER Cycle
The CARBON Cycle
The OXYGEN Cycle
The NITROGEN Cycle
The PHOSPHORUS Cycle
This converts nitrogen gas into chemically active molecules that many organisms can use.
What is nitrogen fixation?
Name the three types of Symbiosis.
MUTUALISM
COMMENSALISM
PARASITISM