Ch3
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22 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Ernst Haeckel | 19th-century scientist Developed the concept of ecology and named it |
| Ecology | Eco (house) logy (study) Study of biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) environment Biotic: includes all organisms Abiotic: Surroundings (living space, temperature, sunlight, soil, wind, and precipitation) |
| Species | A group of similar organisms whose members freely interbreed w/ one another in the wild to produce fertile offspring; members of one species generally do not interbreed with other species of organisms |
| Population | A group of organisms of the same species that live in the same area at the same time |
| Community | A natural association that consists of all the populations of different species that live and interact within an area at the same time |
| Ecosystem | A community and its physical environment |
| Earths 4 Realms | Atmosphere (air), Hydrosphere (water), Lithosphere (land), Biosphere (all combined) |
| Landscape | A region that includes several interacting ecosystems |
| Biosphere | The parts of Earth's atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and soil that contain all living organisms |
| First law of Thermodynamics | an organism may absorb energy from its surroundings, or it may give up some energy into its surroundings, but the total energy content of the organism and its surroundings is always the same |
| Closed system | energy is not exchanged between the system and its surroundings Thermos bottle Rare in nature |
| Open system | energy is exchanged between the system and its surroundings Earth |
| Second law of Thermodynamics | when energy is converted from one form to another, some of it is degraded into heat, a less usable form of energy that disperses into the environment |
| Entropy | measure of disorder or randomness of energy Usable energy: low entropy Disorganized energy (heat): high entropy increasing in the universe in all natural processes (less usable energy) |
| Trophic level | an organism's position in a food chain, which is determined by its feeding relationships |
| Biomass | quantitative estimate of the total mass, or amount, of living materials; it indicated the amount of fixed energy at a particular time |
| GPP | gross primary productivity the total amount of photosynthetic energy that plants capture and assimilate in a given period |
| NPP | net primary productivity productivity after respiration losses are subtracted what consumers can obtain |
| Biosphere | the parts of Earth's atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and soil that contain all living organisms |
| Producers | photosynthetic organisms (plants, algae, and some bacteria) that are potential food resources for other organisms |
| Consumers | feed on other organisms almost exclusively animals |
| Decomposers | feed on the components of dead organisms and organic wastes, degrading them into simple inorganic materials that producers can then use to manufacture more organic material |
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