Chapter 5 Review

• How does energy from the sun enter an ecosystem?

• When plants use light energy to make sugar molecules.

What is photosynthesis?

The process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria use sunlight,

carbon dioxide, and water to produce carbohydrates and

oxygen.

What types of organisms perform photosynthesis?

Plants, algae, and some bacteria.

What do organisms use during photosynthesis?

Sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water.

What is a producer?

An organism that can make organic molecules from inorganic molecules.

What is the other term for a producer?

Autotroph

What does “auto” mean?

Self

What does “troph” mean?

Food or feed

What is a consumer?

An organism that eats other organisms or organic matter instead of producing its own nutrients or obtaining nutrients from

inorganic sources.

What is the other term for a consumer?

Heterotroph

What does “hetero” mean?

Different

What are the producers in a deep-ocean ecosystem?

Bacteria

What compound do deep-ocean producers use?

Hydrogen sulfide

What process do deep-ocean producers use to get energy?

Chemosynthesis

What are the types of consumers?

Herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, decomposer, detritivore

What is cellular respiration?

The process of breaking down carbohydrates to yield energy.

What is used during cellular respiration?

Oxygen, glucose

What is produced during cellular respiration?

Carbon dioxide, water, energy

Every time an organism eats another organism, what is transferred?

Energy

What is a food chain?

A sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another organism.

What is a food web?

A diagram showing many feeding relationships that are possible in an ecosystem.

What is a trophic level?

One of the steps in a food chain or food pyramid; examples include producers, primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers.

All primary consumers are which type(s) of consumer?

Herbivores; or omnivores

Each time energy is transferred, energy is lost in the form of what?

heat

Each layer of an energy pyramid represents what?

Trophic level

Which level of a pyramid contains the most energy?

Lowest level (Producer)

Why does an energy pyramid become smaller at the top?

There are fewer numbers of animals as it goes up because energy is lost at each level, supporting a limited amount of organisms.

What limits the number of trophic levels in an ecosystem?

The amount of producers

How much energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next?

10%

What is the carbon cycle?

The movement of carbon from the nonliving environment into living things and back to the environment.

Why is carbon important?

It is the essential component of proteins, fats, and carbohyrates.

How do producers participate in the carbon cycle?

They take carbon from the air (carbon dioxide) and convert it into carbohydrates.

How do consumers participate in the carbon cycle?

They eat plants to obtain carbon from the plant and release carbon dioxide into the air.

How do dead organisms play a role in the carbon cycle?

Carbon is stored in the bodies of organisms, when they die the carbon is released into the environment.

How are fossil fuels part of the carbon cycle?

Fossil fuels contain carbon and when they are burned, they release the carbon into the air.

What is the nitrogen cycle?

The process in which nitrogen circulates among the air, soil, water, plants, and animals in an ecosystem.

What are nitrogen-fixing bacteria?

Bacteria that converts atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia

Why do organisms need nitrogen?

To build proteins.

What role do decomposers have in the nitrogen cycle?

Break down decaying plants and animals, as well as plant and animal wastes.

What is the phosphorus cycle?

The cyclic movement of phosphorus from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment.

What is phosphorus?

An element that is part of many molecules that make up the cells of living organisms.

Where do plants get phosphorus?

Absorb it from the soil through roots.

Where do animals get phosphorus?

By eating plants or eating other animals that have eaten plants.

How does phosphorus enter the soil?

When rocks erode.

What is ecological succession?

Gradual process of change and replacement of the types of species in a community.

What is primary succession?

A type of succession that occurs on a surface where no ecosystem existed before.

Why is primary succession slower than secondary succession?

It begins where there is no soil.

What is a pioneer species?

A species that colonizes an uninhabited area that starts an ecological cycle in which many other species become established.

Pioneer species that colonize rock are usually what to things?

Lichens and bacteria

What is secondary succession?

Succession that occurs on a surface where an ecosystem previously existed.

What is a climax community?

The final, stable community in equilibrium with the environment.

What is old-field succession?

A type of secondary succession that occurs when farmland is abandoned.

How are natural fires important?

Minor forest fires remove accumulations of brush and deadwood that would otherwise contribute to major fires that burn out of

control.

Be able to describe the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles.

Why is there no oxygen cycle?

Oxygen takes part in other cycles and is not a cycle of its own.

Be able to make a food chain and a food web.