Cause/Effect
What is the effect on consumers if a drought reduces the number of producers in an ecosystem?
With fewer producers available, consumers have less food and energy available. This can lead to population decreases in herbivores first, followed by carnivores that depend on them.
Name at least two parts of the water cycle
Ex) evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration...
How would removing decomposers from an ecosystem affect the cycling of matter?
Without decomposers, dead organisms and waste would not be broken down. Nutrients would not return to the soil, reducing matter available for producers and eventually disrupting the entire energy and matter flow.
Autotrophs can produces their own food through 2 similar processes: Name 1, if you can name both... double points!
photosynthesis and chemosynthesis
Carbon in the atmosphere (CO2) is transformed into glucose through this process used by producers.
Photosynthesis
Give 1 similarity and 1 difference for food chains and food webs.
Similar: Both contain producers, consumers, decomposers. Both show path of energy flow in an ecosystem.
Different: Food chains show only 1 potential path whereas food webs show many interconnected paths. Food chains have less biodiversity than food webs.
A new invasive plant species spreads quickly and outcompetes native plants, causing the native plants to die out. How could this affect the flow of energy through the ecosystem?
Native herbivores may not be able to eat the invasive plant, reducing their food supply. As herbivores decline, predators also lose energy sources, slowing energy transfer through the food web.
During this process, carbon in glucose is converted into carbon dioxide, which is released back into the atmosphere.
Cellular Respiration
Define the Law of Conservation of Matter and relate it to one of the 3 Cycles of Matter.
Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed (changed).
(Connections to water, carbon, or nitrogen cycle will vary)
What would be the long-term effects on the carbon cycle if a large number of trees were removed from a forest? Relate this to the carbon cycle.
With fewer producers, less carbon dioxide would be taken in during photosynthesis. Carbon levels in the atmosphere would rise, disrupting the carbon cycle.
In this food chain, what happens to the grasshoppers and hawks if the number of frogs decreases? grass --> grasshopper --> frog --> hawk
grasshoppers increase, hawks decrease
This type of organism plays a key role in cycling nitrogen into the soil to later be used by producers as nutrients.
Decomposers
Define the term "heterotroph" and give an example
A heterotroph is an organism that gets its energy from other living things.
Examples of heterotrophs are consumers and decomposers.
A chemical spill kills microorganisms in the soil. Explain how this single event could affect both the cycling of matter and the flow of energy in the entire ecosystem.
Soil microorganisms include decomposers and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Their loss prevents nutrients from being recycled into the soil, reducing plant growth (producers).
With fewer producers, less energy enters the food web, leading to declines in consumers and disrupting both matter cycling and energy flow throughout the ecosystem.
Matter cycles through ecosystems, but energy does not. Explain why the flow of energy in a food chain is not a cycle.
Matter gets recycled back to the start of the food chain for producers to use as nutrients/reactants for photosynthesis.
Energy does not return to the original source, the sun, therefore it does not make a cycle.
What happens to the energy that is not passed on to the next trophic level?
90% of the energy obtained by an organism is used by that organism for life and released as heat energy back into the environment.
A community plans to remove fallen leaves yearly to “clean up” a forest.
Assess how this action will affect the cycling of matter and ecosystem stability.
Removing fallen leaves disrupts the cycling of matter because decomposers rely on leaf litter as a major source of organic material. Without leaves to break down, fewer nutrients return to the soil, leading to nutrient-poor conditions for plants.
Overall, removing leaf litter harms ecosystem stability by interrupting decomposition, limiting nutrient availability, weakening plant growth, and altering habitat conditions for soil organisms.
Give 3 examples of biotic and 3 examples of abiotic factors in a Wisconsin ecosystem.
Biotic: any plants or animals in WI
Abiotic: water, oxygen, sunlight, temperature, soil...