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Introduction to Ecosystems

Introduction to Ecosystems. 2/13/12. What is an individual?. One of a species. What is a species?. A group of individuals who have similar enough DNA that they are able to produce viable offspring. What is a population?. Several individuals of the same species that live in the same area.

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Introduction to Ecosystems

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  1. Introduction to Ecosystems 2/13/12

  2. What is an individual? • One of a species.

  3. What is a species? • A group of individuals who have similar enough DNA that they are able to produce viable offspring.

  4. What is a population? • Several individuals of the same species that live in the same area.

  5. What is a community? • Populations that interact with one another.

  6. What is an ecosystem? • An ecosystem a community of biotic (living) organisms that interact with abiotic (non-living) organisms in an interdependent system.

  7. What is a biome? • A type of ecosystem that shares similar climate, and components.

  8. What are primary producers? • An Autotroph; A species that creates its own food through photosynthesis or from reduced inorganic compounds.

  9. What are consumers? • Organisms that eat other organisms to obtain energy.

  10. What are decomposers? • Organisms that obtain energy by feeding on the dead remains of other organisms or waste products. • Get nutrients and live on dead organic matter (habitat)

  11. What is are trophic levels? • Trophic levels are organisms that obtain their energy from the same source. • Energy moves through ecosystems in the form of light, or chemical energy. • Usually no more than 4-5 trophic levels, due to 2nd law of Thermodynamics.

  12. What is an herbivore? • An organism that eats plants.

  13. What is an omnivore? • An organism that eats plants and animals.

  14. What is a carnivore? • An organism that eats other animals.

  15. What is a predator? • An organism that kills and consumes other organisms.

  16. What is a prey? • An organism that is consumed by a predator.

  17. What is the carrying capacity of a population? • When a population stabilizes at a maximum number of individuals that can be supported by resources available in the habitat over a sustained period of time.

  18. How does the carbon cycle relate to the food chain? • Carbon (and other nutrients) move up the food chain, carrying with it stored energy.

  19. What is parasitism? • A long term relationship between two organisms that is beneficial to one organism (the parasite), but detrimental to the other (the host). • (+/-) • Example: Wasps that lay eggs in caterpillars, malaria causing plasmodium, misquitos, Mycobacterium (causes tuberculosis), lice, tapeworms

  20. What is mutualism? • A type of symbiotic relationship between two species that is beneficial to both species. • (+/+) • Examples: Bees and flowers, Treehoppers and ants, Lichen = algae+fungus

  21. What is commensalism? • A relationship in which one organism benefits and one the other neither benefits or is harmed by the interaction. • (0/+) • Barnacles on whales, Remora sharks hitch a ride on larger sharks, clown fish and sea anemones

  22. What is amensalism? • A relationship in which one organism is harmed and the other neither benefits or is harmed. • (0/-) • Penecillinkills bread mold, humans and cattle or sheep trample the grass, Black walnut trees secrete chemicals that kill other plants, redwoods have tannic acid in their leaves/needles that make the soil too acidic for other plants to grow

  23. What is competition? • A relationship in which both species are negatively affect by the outcome of the interaction. • (-/-)

  24. What is an ecological niche? • A specific role or job that an individual has in an ecosystem.

  25. What is a keystone species? • A species that has an exceptionally great impact on the surrounding community. • Pisaster (sea star), sea otter

  26. Net Primary Productivity

  27. What is photosynthesis? • A series of chemical reactions and electron transfer events that converts the energy of light into chemical energy stored in glucose. • Equation for photosynthesis: 6CO2+ 6H20 + light energy  C6H12O6 +6O2

  28. Why is dissolved oxygen a measure of productivity? • Dissolved oxygen is produced in photosynthesis. • Dissolved oxygen is consumed in cellular respiration.

  29. What is gross primary productivity? • The amount of biomass produced by photosynthesis per unit area over a specific time period.

  30. What is Respiration? • Metabolizing glucose (carbon compound) into chemical energy using oxygen.

  31. What is Net primary productivity? • The Net primary productivity= gross primary productivity - respiration

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