Ecosystems include living communities and the nonliving conditions that shape them. This lesson introduces ecosystem types, the environmental factors that influence communities, and how ecosystems respond to disturbance.
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms together with their abiotic (nonliving) environment. Ecosystems vary greatly in size: a tide pool is a small ecosystem, while the Amazon rainforest contains many interconnected habitats and communities.
All flashcards
What is a food chain?
A linear sequence showing how energy and nutrients pass as organisms consume one another.
What is a primary consumer?
An organism, usually an herbivore, that eats producers.
What is a detrital food web?
A feeding pathway that begins with dead and decaying organic matter.
What is net primary productivity (NPP)?
The energy remaining in producers after their respiration and heat loss, available to consumers.
What is biomagnification?
The increasing concentration of persistent toxic substances in organisms at successively higher trophic levels.
Quiz questions
What does a food web represent?Answer: Interconnected feeding relationships among organisms.
What role do decomposers such as many bacteria and fungi play in ecosystems?Answer: They break down dead and decaying material.
How do chemoautotrophs obtain energy?Answer: From chemical reactions involving inorganic molecules.
What does net primary productivity describe?Answer: Energy remaining after producers' respiration and heat loss.
What happens during biomagnification?Answer: Persistent toxic substances become more concentrated at higher trophic levels.
Based on Concepts of Biology by Samantha Fowler, Rebecca Roush, James Wise (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.