Terminology
The non-living components of an ecosystem.
What are abiotic factors?
This renewable energy source is harnessed from the Sun.
What is solar power?
The layer of gasses that surround the Earth.
This gas makes up about 78% of the Earth's atmosphere.
What is nitrogen (N2)
Identify the producer in the following food chain:
Algae -> Fish -> Penguin -> Leopard Seal
Algae
What is an ecosystem?
These are the largest contributor to climate change.
Burning of fossil fuels (e.g. coal, oil, natural gas)
Carbon dioxide moves from the atmosphere to the biosphere due to this process.
What is photosynthesis?
This term describes a substance added to soil to supply essential nutrients for plant growth.
What is a fertilizer?
Identify the tertiary consumer in this food chain:
Algae -> Fish -> Penguin -> Leopard Seal
Leopard Seal
The amount of salt in soil or water.
What is salinity?
An increase of this gas in the atmosphere is a major source of climate change.
Carbon dioxide
The process by which dead plants and animals break down and release their carbon into the ground.
What is decomposition?
The microorganism that is responsible for converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, making it available for plants.
What are bacteria?
Grass -> Zebra ->Lion
Zebra
Occurs when trees are cut down across a wide area. This occurs so that the land can be used for other purposes, such as farming.
What is deforestation?
This phenomenon refers to the gradual change in the Earth's weather patterns due to human activities.
This process involves humans and plants breathing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
What is respiration.
Plants need nitrogen in order to make this nurtient.
Fungi, bacteria, and worms are all examples of this category of organism.
What is a decomposer?
Meeting the needs of the present, whilst ensuring that future generations have enough resources to survive.
What is sustainability?
The world's most common edible oil. Over the last two decades, an area larger than the entire country of Ireland was cleared in Indonesia to harvest this oil.
What is palm oil?
The widespread burning of fossil fuels is releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a much faster rate than it can be removed. Deforestation also reduces the number of trees that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is causing an imbalance in the carbon cycle.
How are human activities impacting the carbon cycle.
This term describes the process by which water bodies become overly enriched with nutrients, often leading to algal blooms.
What is eutrophication?
Consider the following food chain:
Algae -> Fish -> Penguin -> Leopard Seal.
The leopard seal population has been reduced due to overhunting. Explain how this will affect the penguin population.
The overhunting of leopard seals means that there will be reduced predation of penguins. As a result, the penguin population will increase.