Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Chapter 3 Notes
Interactions and
Interdependence

•
•

•
Levels of
Organization in
Ecology

•

•
•
•
•
•
Methods of
Ecologists

•
•
•

•
•
Producers

•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•

Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among
organisms in their environment
...
It rises 8 kilometers off the surface
and falls 11 kilometers below
...

In Ecology the levels of organization are from smallest to
largest: Individual, population, community, ecosystem,
biome, and biosphere
...

A population is a group of individuals of the same species
...

An ecosystem is a collection of communities living in a
general area and their nonliving surroundings
...

Ecologists use a wide variety of methods for studying the
varying ecology
...

When observing scientists make simple and complex
observations about different things that they are looking
at
...

Scientists make models to gain insight on very complex
things, such as the effects of global warming
...

Less than 1 percent of the suns energy is used
...

Autotrophs use energy from the environment to fuel the
assembly of simple inorganic compounds that are used
for food
...

Photosynthesis is the process of harness solar energy
During photosynthesis carbon dioxide and water are
converted into carbohydrates and oxygen
...

Organisms that cannot produce their own food are called
heterotrophs they are also called consumers
...

Herbivores only feed on plants
...

Omnivores eat both meat and plants
...

Energy flows in one direction through an ecosystem from
solar and chemical energy to autotrophs, and then to
various heterotrophs
...

Because ecosystems feeding patterns are more
complicated than food chains, food webs show the
complex interactions in an ecosystem by linking all of the
food chains
...

An ecological pyramid represents the amount of energy
or matter within a trophic level
...

The total amount of living tissue in a trophic level is
biomass
...

Unlike energy matter is recycled within and between
ecosystems
...

Matter is constantly recycled because it never actually
goes away
...

Evaporation turns water into water vapor
...

Nutrients are chemical substances organisms need to
sustain life, and to carry out every day tasks
...

The processes that carbon is moved by are: Biological

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•



(photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition),
Geochemical (such as erosion), Biogeochemical
(conversion of dead into coal, and fossil fuels), and
Human (such as mining and burning things)
...

Nitrogen fixation fixes nitrogen to the soil
...

Phosphorous is also very important, but not as common
in the air it is mainly on land
...

A limiting nutrient is a nutrient that limits the growth of
an ecosystem because it is scarce or cycles slowly
...

If a limiting nutrient is added to water very suddenly in a
large amount it can disrupt the equilibrium of the
ecosystem by causing algal blooms

---