Show:
Feedback Loops
Water
Carbon
Nitrogen
Grab Bag
100

Feedback loops that are stabilizing as they move towards equilibrium

What are negative feedback loops?

100

Rain snow sleet and hail 

What is precipitation 

100

Process by which plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmopshere

What is photosynthesis

100

% of Nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere

What is 78%

100

A species whose activities has a significant role in determining community structure.

What is keystone species

200

Occur when a disturbance leads to an amplification of that disturbance

What are positive feedback loops?

200

Liquid water changing to water vapor

What is evaporation

200

Process of burning fossil fuels, releasing carbon

What is combustion 

200

How do humans get the nitrogen that they need?

Consumption (eating)

200

How do autotrophs obtain energy?

photosynthesis/chemosynthesis 

300

Warming temps cause reflective Arctic ice to melt, which causes the Earth to absorb more heat and melt more ice

What is positive feedback?

300

Water vapor from the atmosphere forms into clouds

What is condensation

300

Process done by fungi and bacteria, adds carbon to the atmosphere 

What is decomposition

300
Essential molecules in living things that require nitrogen

What are proteins, nucleic acids (DNA & RNA)?

300

The 3 fossil fuels

What are coal, oil and natural gas
400
If a prey population grows large, there is more food for predators. This leads to an increase in the predator population, which then reduces the prey population. The smaller prey population then leads to a decrease in the predator population, allowing the prey population to recover. 

What is negative feedback?

400

2 things can happen with water after precipitation has returned it to the ground

What is infiltration, surface runoff 

400

Process by which both plants and animals return carbon to the atmosphere

What is cellular respiration

400

2 ways that nitrogen fixation occurs

What is bacterial / microbial action and lightning?

400

Organisms such as bacteria fungi that break down nonliving matter into smaller molecules that cycle back into soil.

What are decomposers

500

Warmer temps in the Arctic thaw Arctic permafrost, which releases methane and carbon dioxide that trap more heat, further warming earth.

What is positive feedback?

500

Evaporation of water from the leaves of plants

What is transpiration?

500

Two ways that humans have drastically altered the carbon cycle, upsetting its balance

Burning fossil fuels & deforestation (other answers acceptable)

500

Process by which nitrogen gas becomes biologically available in the soil and can be taken up by plants.

What is nitrogen fixation?

500

Organisms such as insects and worms that eat waste and dead bodies, helping break it down

What are detritivores