Extinction
As ecosystems change, some species disappear and others take their place. This is called _________ extinction.
Natural/Background
Energy in motion.
Kinetic Energy
Energy flow in an ecosystem begins with these organisms.
Producers
The basic unit of matter.
Atom
The ability to do work.
Energy
Species that can live in many kinds of habitats and survive many environmental conditions.
Generalists
Stored energy with the potential to move.
Potential Energy
Consumers that eat both plants and meat.
Omnivores
Matter cannot be created or destroyed; only changed in form.
Law of Conservation of Matter
Places where atoms collect for a short period of time.
Pools
The number of major mass extinctions that have occurred in Earth's history
5
Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
Law of Conservation of Energy
Organisms that have a stronger influence on the way energy flows through a food web.
Keystone species
Name three of the five main elements essential to life.
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, & Nitrogen (name three)
Organisms that get their energy by eating dead organisms.
Detritivores
Species that can only live in a narrow range of conditions.
Specialists
The name for plants and other photosynthetic organisms that take a form of energy that most organisms can't (sunlight) and produce a form of energy that most organisms can use (glucose).
Producers
The position an organism occupies in a food chain.
Trophic Level
The biological process that removes carbon from the atmosphere.
Photosynthesis
The consumer at the top of the energy pyramid in the fifth tropic level.
Quaternary Consumer
A self-reinforcing, downward spiral where declining populations become increasingly vulnerable to extinction due to a combination of factors
Extinction Vortex
The creation of organic matter (biomass) from inorganic substances by autotrophic organisms, primarily through photosynthesis.
Primary Production
Approximately how much energy (%) is "lost" as you move from one level to the next in an energy pyramid.
80-90%
The type of organism that is able to "fix" nitrogen; take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and put it into a form that plants can use.
Bacteria
When a species disappears from one location but survives in another.
Extirpation