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Ecology of Ecosystems

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Term
Definition
Ecosystem   A community of organisms interacting within a particular physical environment or a community plus its abiotic factors.  
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Photoautotrophs   Organisms that carry out photosynthesis--primarily plants  
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Autotrophs   Primary producers  
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Consumers   Organisms that consume primary producers  
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Herbivores   Consumers which eat plants  
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Carnivores   Consumers which eat animals  
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Omnivores   Organisms which eat both plants and animals  
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Decomposers   Organisms which obtain their energy by breaking down the remains or products of organisms (includes fungi and bacteria)  
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• Detritivores   Decomposers which eat detritus (organic waste and dead organisms)  
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Detritus   Organic wastes and dead organisms  
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Trophic   Feeding  
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• First trophic level   Contains the autotrophs which build energy containing molecules. (They also absorb nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and other molecules necessary for life)  
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• Chemoautotrophs   An organism that manufactures its own food through chemosynthesis (the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds) as opposed to photosynthesis. Bacteria  
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• Second trophic level   Contains the primary consumers which eat the primary producers including herbivores, decomposers and detritivores, e.g. insects, grasshoppers, deer and wildebeest  
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• Third trophic level   Contains the secondary consumers, primary carnivores which eat the herbivores, e.g. mice, spiders and many birds  
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• Fourth trophic level   Contains the tertiary consumers, secondary carnivores who eat the primary carnivores, e.g. weasel, owl, sharks and wolves.  
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Food webs   Intricate pathways of energy flow and material cycling  
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• Gross primary productivity   The rate at which the primary producers capture and store energy per unit time.  
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Biological magnification   The tendency for toxic substances to increase in concentration at progressively higher levels of the food chain  
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Ecological succession   A directional, cumulative change in the species that occupy a given area, through time  
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• Primary succession   Starts from barren ground, e.g. new islands or de-glaciated areas  
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• Secondary succession   Starts from disturbed areas, e.g. abandoned farm land or storm ravaged land  
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Pioneer community   The first organisms to occupy an area  
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Transitional communities   Communities may come and go  
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Climax community   A stable, self-perpetuating array of species in equilibrium with one another and their habitat  
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Biodiversity   Biodiversity, the number of different species within an area  
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• Biome   A large region of land characterized by the climax vegetation of the ecosystems within its boundaries  
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• Weather   The condition of the atmosphere at any given time  
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• Climate   The accumulation of weather events over a long period of time (temperatures, humidity, wind, cloud cover, rainfall)  
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• Climate is dependent upon several factors:   Solar radiation The earth's daily rotation The earth's rotation around the sun The distributions of continents and oceans  
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