Producers, Consumers, and energy flow
This group of organisms converts solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis.
What are producers (or autotrophs)?
This term describes the rate at which plants produce useful chemical energy.
What is primary productivity?
This term refers to areas in oceans or lakes with very low oxygen due to nutrient pollution.
What are dead zones?
This field studies how spatial patterns affect ecosystems and ecological processes.
What is landscape ecology?
This cycle moves water through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
What is the water cycle (or hydrologic cycle)?
This term describes organisms that consume other organisms for energy.
What are consumers (or heterotrophs)?
The total energy captured by producers in an ecosystem is called this.
What is gross primary productivity (GPP)?
This major U.S. river’s nutrient runoff has created a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
What is the Mississippi River?
This mapping technology helps scientists study land use, habitats, and ecosystem change.
What is GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
This element cycles through the atmosphere, biosphere, and fossil fuels, and is linked to climate change.
What is carbon?
These organisms recycle nutrients by breaking down dead matter and waste.
What are decomposers?
This is the energy remaining after plant respiration, available to consumers.
What is net primary productivity (NPP)
Dead zones are typically caused by an overgrowth of this, followed by decomposition.
What is Algae?
Forests providing clean air and water are examples of these ecosystem benefits.
What are ecosystem services?
This human activity adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, intensifying the greenhouse effect.
What is burning fossil fuels?
This is the pathway energy takes as it flows through different trophic levels.
What is a food chain (or food web)?
Nitrogen and phosphorus are called these because they limit plant growth when scarce.
What are limiting nutrients?
The decomposition of algae by bacteria uses up this, leading to hypoxia.
What is oxygen
Pollination and nutrient cycling are examples of this type of ecosystem service.
What are regulating services?
This nutrient cycle relies heavily on bacteria for processes like nitrification and denitrification.
What is the nitrogen cycle?
This is the level of energy transfer efficiency between trophic levels, typically around 10%.
What is the 10% rule?
Ecosystem health often declines when there's too much of this process caused by excess nutrients.
What is eutrophication?
This human activity is a major source of nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into aquatic systems.
What is agriculture (or fertilizer use)?
GIS can help identify this type of landscape that connects habitat patches.
What are ecological corridors (or wildlife corridors)?
This element moves mostly through rock and water, and is a key driver of eutrophication when in excess.
What is phosphorus?