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Unit 1 APES
The Living World: Ecosystems
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 10% rule | Only about 10% of energy is passed from one trophic level to the next; the other 90% is lost, mainly as heat through metabolism and respiration. |
| Abiotic | Nonliving parts of an ecosystem, such as sunlight, water, temperature, soil, and air. |
| ammonification | The process where decomposers convert organic nitrogen from dead organisms and waste into ammonium (NH₄⁺). |
| assimiliation | The process where plants absorb nitrogen (usually as nitrate or ammonium) from the soil and use it to make proteins and other molecules. |
| aquatic biome types | Major ecosystems that contain water, including freshwater (lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands) and marine (oceans, coral reefs, estuaries). |
| autotroph | An organism that makes its own food using energy from sunlight or chemicals, such as plants and algae. |
| biogeochemical cycle | The movement of nutrients and elements between living organisms and the nonliving environment, such as the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles. |
| biome | A large region with a specific climate, plants, and animals, such as a desert, rainforest, or tundra. |
| biotic | The living parts of an ecosystem, such as plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. |
| carbon cycle | The movement of carbon between the atmosphere, living organisms, soil, oceans, and rocks through processes like photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition. |
| cell respiration | The process cells use to break down glucose to release energy (ATP), usually using oxygen and producing carbon dioxide and water. |
| commensalism | A relationship where one organism benefits and the other is not helped or harmed. |
| competition (inter- vs, intraspecific) | Interspecific Competition: Competition between different species for the same limited resources. Intraspecific Competition: Competition between members of the same species for limited resources. |
| consumer | An organism that gets energy by eating other organisms because it cannot make its own food |
| decomposition | The process where decomposers break down dead organisms and waste, returning nutrients to the environment. |
| dentrification | The process where bacteria convert nitrates (NO₃⁻) into nitrogen gas (N₂), returning nitrogen to the atmosphere. |
| food chain | A sequence that shows how energy and nutrients move from one organism to another as they eat each other. |
| food web | A network of interconnected food chains that shows how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem |
| fresh water | Water with very little salt, found in lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands. |
| gross primary productivity (GPP) | The total amount of energy captured by producers through photosynthesis in an ecosystem. |
| hydrologic cycle | The continuous movement of water through Earth’s atmosphere, surface, and underground through processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. |
| laws of thermodynamics | Rules that explain how energy is transferred and transformed in a system. |
| first law of thermodynamics | Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or changed. |
| second law of thermodynamics | Every energy transfer increases disorder and some energy is lost as heat. |
| marine | Ecosystems that contain saltwater, including oceans, coral reefs, and estuaries. |
| mutualism | A relationship where both organisms benefit. |
| negative feedback loop | A process where a change triggers a response that counteracts the original change, helping keep a system stable. |
| net primary productivity (NPP) | The amount of energy left for growth and consumers after producers use some energy for cellular respiration. |
| nitrogen cycle | The movement of nitrogen through the atmosphere, soil, water, and living organisms through processes like fixation, nitrification, and denitrification. |
| nitrogen fixation | The process where bacteria convert nitrogen gas (N₂) from the atmosphere into a form plants can use, such as ammonia. |
| nitrification | The process where bacteria convert ammonia/ammonium into nitrites and then nitrates, which plants can use. |
| parasitism | A relationship where one organism benefits while the other is harmed. |
| phosphorus cycle | The movement of phosphorus through rocks, soil, water, and living organisms, mainly through weathering, absorption, and decomposition. |
| photosynthesis | The process where plants and other producers use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make glucose and oxygen. |
| positive feedback loop | A process where a change causes more of the same change, making the original effect stronger. |
| predator | An organism that hunts, kills, and eats another organism (prey) for food. |
| predator-prey relationship | A relationship where a predator hunts and eats a prey organism, helping control the populations of both species. |
| prey | An organism that is hunted and eaten by a predator. |
| primary productivity | The rate at which producers create biomass (stored energy) through photosynthesis in an ecosystem. |
| producer | An organism that makes its own food, usually through photosynthesis, and provides energy for other organisms. |
| reservoir | A place where a nutrient or element is stored in an ecosystem, such as the atmosphere, oceans, soil, or rocks. |
| reservoir/sink (vs. source) | Reservoir/Sink: A place that stores or absorbs more of a substance than it releases. Source: A place that releases more of a substance than it absorbs. |
| resource partitioning | When species use different resources or use the same resource in different ways to reduce competition. |
| respiration | The process where organisms break down glucose to release usable energy, using oxygen and producing carbon dioxide and water. |
| salinity | The amount of dissolved salt in water. |
| secondary productivity | The rate at which consumers convert the food they eat into new biomass (body tissue). |
| sink | A place that absorbs and stores more of a substance than it releases. |
| source | A place that releases more of a substance than it absorbs, adding it to the environment. |
| source (vs. sink) | Source: A place that releases more of a substance than it absorbs. Sink: A place that absorbs and stores more of a substance than it releases. |
| symbiosis | A close, long-term relationship between two different species. |
| terrestrial biome types | Major land ecosystems classified by climate, plants, and animals, such as deserts, grasslands, forests, and tundra. |
| trophic cascade | A chain reaction in an ecosystem where a change in one trophic level affects the populations and abundance of organisms at other trophic levels. |
| trophic level(s) | The position an organism occupies in a food chain or food web, based on how it gets energy (producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, etc.). |
| turbidity | The cloudiness or murkiness of water caused by suspended particles like sediment, algae, or pollution. |
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