Study Guide: Chapter 3AP Environmental Science
Chapter 3
Be able to define prokaryotic cell, eukaryotic cell, organism, population, community, ecosystem habitat and niche. Be able to define abiotic and biotic, and be able to give examples of abiotic and biotic factors that affect an ecosystem.
Be able to define limiting factors and be able to explain the limiting factor principle. Know some examples of common limiting factors for organisms, such as temperature, salinity, nutrients, etc. Be able to define range of tolerance.
Be able to define trophic level. Be able to define autotroph/producer. Be able to explain the similarities and differences between photosynthesis and chemosynthesis. Be able to give an example of an ecosystem that depends upon chemosynthesis.
Be able to define heterotroph/consumer, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, decomposers and detritivores (detritus feeders) and give an example of each.
Be able to explain there is a one-way flow of energy through food chains. Be able to define biomass. Be able to explain why food chains form energy pyramids (relate to 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). Be able to define ecological efficiency and know what the typical ecological efficiency is for a food chain.
Be able to define gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP). Be able to name three ecosystems that typically have the highest NPP (rainforests, swamps/marshes and estuaries) and explain some factors that could affect the NPP.
Be able to explain how to measure GPP, NPP, and respiration in an ecosystem like Ellis Pond.
Be able to explain the following processes in the water cycle: transpiration, evaporation, precipitation, condensation, infiltration and percolation.
Be able to define the basic processes of the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles. Know the major reservoirs, how the nutrient gets into the food chain, the major processes that move the nutrients through each cycle, the roles of various bacteria, decomposers, and human influences on each cycle.
In particular:
Carbon cycle: includingphotosynthesis (carbon fixation), movement of organic molecules through the food chain the earth, cellular respiration, combustion of fossil fuels, and the role of the ocean.
Nitrogen cycle: Be able to explain Nitrogen fixing: that nitrogen-fixing bacteria found in the soil and on root nodules of certain plants (legumes) convert atmospheric N2 into nitrogen compounds (ammonia- NH3) which can also be converted into nitrates (NO3) by other bacteria (nitrification). Understand that plants cannot use atmospheric nitrogen but can utilize ammonia and nitrate compounds as a source of nitrogen. Be able to explain that nitrogen atoms are found in DNA and protein. Understand how denitrification by bacteria returns nitrogen to the atmosphere.
Sulfur Cycle: Know it can lead to acid rain when sulfur dioxide (SO2) enters the atmosphere through combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of metal ores (refining process), or eruption of volcanoes.
Phosphorous cycle: know there is no atmospheric component.