Carbon Cycle
Consumption/digestion is one way that carbon transfers or moves in an ecosystem. What does this mean?
The matter that makes up organisms is carbon based. Therefore, carbon is transferred when one organism eats another.
What is the advantage of using a pyramid over something like an energy square?
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food. A food web is made of multiple food chains. BOTH show the direction of energy flow.
What is an ecosystem?
An environment in which abiotic and biotic factors are interacting.
Go to the board and draw an example of a food chain.
An example food chain:
Corn -----> Grasshopper -----> Lizard -----> Snake
What is the only process (that we've learned) that pulls CO2 from the atmosphere?
Photosynthesis
What is the 10% rule?
It explains how energy transfers between trophic levels. When energy is passed in an ecosystem from one trophic level to the next, only ten percent of the energy will be passed on
What do the arrows represent on a food chain or web?
The direction the energy is traveling.
What is the difference between abiotic and biotic factors?
Abiotic are non-living. Biotic are living.
Go to the board and draw an example of a food web.
(answers will vary)
What is the biggest reservoir of carbon on the Earth?
Underground in the sediment and rock.
If energy transfer is not 100% efficient, where does the energy lost go?
The energy is lost due to other processes, such as metabolism, which is lost as heat.
A type of consumer that eats a primary consumer is called...?
Why do you think there are less top predators than something like a primary consumer?
Due to the 10% rule, there is less energy available to support the top predators.
Go to the board and draw an energy pyramid (with organisms). Show how much energy is transferred to each trophic level.
10% of energy is transferred to the next trophic level.
What are the five ways carbon can move through an ecosystem. You must explain what each one is.
Decomposition, consumption, combustion, photosynthesis, and cell respiration.
Which trophic level MUST have the most organisms?
The primary producers.
Where does energy start in a food web?
The producers, aka the plants.
Between cellular respiration and photosynthesis, which releases carbon into the atmosphere and which absorbs it?
Cell respiration releases carbon while photosynthesis absorbs it.
If 1320 kcal of energy is available to the producers, how much energy would be transferred and assimilated to the next trophic level, the primary consumers?
132 kcal. 10% rule!
What are two ways that humans have disrupted the carbon cycle?
Deforestation, resulting in smaller carbon sinks.
Combustion of fossil fuels, resulting in carbon moving from underground to the atmosphere.
If the primary producers produce 115 kcal of energy, is there enough energy available to support quaternary consumers?
No. By the time you get to tertiary, the energy available will be less than 1 kcal.
This might have already been done, but go to the board and draw a food web!
(answers will vary)
Imagine that an invasive specie species has been introduced to the ecosystem. This species is incredible at out-competing the primary consumers for plants in the area. How might this impact your ecosystem?
Since the primary consumers are without food, their population will likely decline. If their population declines, the ecosystem may also decline, meaning the other organisms in the food chain will be without food.
Go to the board and draw a complete carbon cycle.