Food Webs & Matter
What symbols in a food web diagram show the directional flow of energy from one organism to another?
Arrows
What is the percentage of energy that is typically passed up from one trophic level to the next in a energy pyramid?
10%
What is the maximum population size of a species that a particular environment can support indefinitely?
Carrying Capacity
What is the cellular process plants use to convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into glucose?
Photosynthesis
Which trophic level forms the foundation of all food webs by capturing energy directly from sunlight?
Most of the 90% of energy NOT passed to the next trophic level is lost to the environment in what form?
Heat
What is a symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit, such as red-billed oxpeckers eating parasites off an impala?
Mutualism
What are the products of photosynthesis?
Glucose and oxygen
What are organisms that break down dead organic matter and recycle carbon and nitrogen back into the ecosystem?
Decomposers
If producers capture 20,000 kJ of energy from sunlight, what is the amount available to secondary consumers at Level 3?
(20,000 kJ --> 2,000 kJ --> 200 kJ)
What do we call factors like food availability, nesting space, and disease that limit a population more strongly as its density increases?
Density-dependent limiting factors
What cellular process does both plants and animals do to break down food molecules and release energy?
Cellular respiration
What molecule is recycled through the food web by decomposers?
Carbon
(Matter & other nutrients)
In an energy pyramid containing kelp, sea urchins, sea otters, and orcas, which specific trophic level is represented by sea otters?
Secondary Consumers
What do we predict will happen to a deer population as a wolf population increase?
The deer population will decrease
What are the two reactants required for photosynthesis?
In a food web containing plants, rabbits, snakes, and hawks, this organism serves as the primary energy pathway directly from producers to carnivores.
Herbivores
Why is there typically a smaller population of carnivores compared to herbivores?
Energy is lost at each trophic level
What is the interaction occurring between hawks and mountain lions when they both rely on the same food source?
Competition
The products of one are the inputs of the other