Botkin & Keller: Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet- 8th Ed.

Chapter #5- Ecosystems: Concepts and Fundamentals Guided Reading Assignment Name:__________________________________________________ Case Study: Sea Otters, Sea Urchins, and Kelp: Indirect Effects of Species on One Another 1: Define: Community Effect When interaction b/t species lead to changes, absents of other species in abundance. 2: Explain WHY the Sea Otter is considered the Keystone Species in this ecosystem. (Hint: Explain the food chain) Because they affect the kelp directly, they feed on kelp nor protect individual kelp plants from attack urchins. 3: Why were Sea Otters endangered and how did their numbers rebound? It endangered because of hunter, it rebounded because some part of the population survived. 5.1- The Ecosystem: Sustaining Life on Earth Ecosystem has 2 living parts, non and living. Non-living: 1: Define Ecosystem Structure physical chemical envi. Living part is ecological community, species interacting with ecosy.. 2: What two main processes must occur to maintain an ecosystem? Cycling of chemical elements and a ow of energy system. 5.2- Ecological Communities and Food Chains

1: What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? Web: the relationship b/t food and energy ow. Chain: food level. and how they are tranfer. 2: Define: Trophic Level All organism in a food web, same number of feeding levels away from the energy source. 3: Define: Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, Carnivores, Herbivores, Decomposeters Look website. 4: Explain the food web of Yellowstone Hot Springs. Explain each trophic level (include a photo). Few organism can live in environment. (website) 5: Explain a pelagic ecosystem. Explain each trophic level (include photos). Ocean food webs. Have more level than terrestrial eco. (WEBSITE) A Closer Look- Land and Marine Food Webs 1: Look at the terrestrial food web. Should we include people within this ecosystems food web? That would place us within nature. OR should we place people outside of the ecosystem, thus separate from nature?

Yes, because we kill and sometimes eat some of those animals. It wouldnt place us within nature, because were already part of nature. We are part of that ecosystem because we lived and depend on most of them.

5.3- Ecosystems as Systems 1: Why are ecosystems considered to be OPEN systems? The one with energy and matter owing in and out of them. 2: Define: Watershed Delineation of the boundary of an ecosystem on land. 5.4- Biological Production and Ecosystem Energy Flow 1: Define: Energy strength require for a active, physical or mental. 2: Explain: Ecosystem Energy Flow- What two ways does energy enter an ecosystem? Movement of energy through an ecosystem from the external envir. Enters by energy xed organism and moving through food webs within eco. Also heat, it transfer water through soil and warms living things. The Laws of Thermodynamics and the Ultimate Limit on the Abundance of Life 1: The First Law of Thermodynamics is also known as what? Define it. In any physical change energy is neither created or destroyed merely change from one another. 2: What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics say? No use of energy in real world can be 100% efcient. After work some energy is converted to heat. 3: Define Entropy (give an example). energy measure of decrease in order. EX/ engineer converting pile of lumber in order to make chairs. 4: What is an intermediate system? Ecosystem lying b/t energy sink and source. 5.5- Biological Production and Biomass 1: What is biomass? Total amount of matter in a ecosystem. 2: Define the following: * Biological Production Captured and usable energy from envirom. to produce organic matter. * Gross Production increase stored energy before use. * Net Production Amount of newly acquired from energy stored after used. 3: What are the 3 measures that are used for biomass and biological production? Biomass (energy and carbon stored) . g/m^2 .MT/ha 1.Ecology species, 2. Communities. 3. Biodiversity 4: What is primary production- who carries this out? Production by autotrophs. 5: What is secondary production- who is involved? hetretrophs. 6: Who are chemoautotrophs? Explain- where are they usually found?

Bacteria that can derive energy from chemical reaction of simple inorganic compouds.

5.6- Energy Efficiency and Transfer Efficiency 1: What is energy efficiency? It refers to rst and second law efcient. Ratio of output and dened as amount of work obtained from a available energy. 2: How would energy efficiency look with a wolf and moose population? Explain. Wolf will need energy to travel distance, it will be better if he uses more energy in food as it can. It will stored nothing. 3: What is food-chain or trophic level efficiency? ratio production of one trophic level for production of the next level. 4: Generally, how much energy is lost to heat when being transferred between trophic levels? LESS than 1 PERCENT. 5.7- Ecological Stability and Succession 1: What is ecological succession? Ecosystem that can recover. 2: Compare and contrast primary and secondary succession- give an example of each. Primary: No soil, ex/ Coral reef form of lava cooled in shallow water. Second: Soil present. Ex/ Burned forest. 3: Explain how succession would look in a Dune. Sandy shores. 4: Explain how succession would look in a Bog. Body of water with small streams. 5: Explain how succession would look in an old-field. Large trees, dense forest. 6: Explain how succession would look in a coral reef. warm water by corals. Full of life. 5.9- How Species Change Succession

1: Explain facilitation in succession and where is it most common? species that change local environments in a way thats good for the other. Common in tropical forest. 2: Explain interference in succession and what it can lead to. contrast to facilitation. Changes in local environment that can be unsuitable to another specie. 3: What is chronic patchiness? When does this occur? highly disturbed environment and stressful in temperatures, chemical availability, and precipitation. Critical Thinking Issue: Should People Eat Lower on the Food Chain? 1:Why does the energy content decrease at each higher level of a food chain? What happens to the energy lost at each level? Because while the level in increasing theres less energy, the animals become rare. The less predator there is. 2: Why it is appropriate to use mass to represent energy content? Because the energy is stored in the autotrophs.

3: Using the average of 21 kilojoules of energy to equal 1g of completely dried vegetation and assuming that wheat is 80% water, what is the energy content of the 333,000 kg of wheat shown 81% wheat= water. in the pyramid? (show your work). 21K = 1G 333,000 kg/ 21k = 15857.14g 4: Make a list of environmental arguments for and against an entirely vegetarian diet for people. What might be the consequences for the United States agriculture if everyone in the country .need protein .Thats not a good diet. began to eat lower on the food chain? .Stop slaughtering .Animal becoming extinct. . There be less animals, because we are eating their food. 5: How low do you eat on the food chain? Would you be willing to eat lower? Explain. From the very bottom. I eat plants, and I eat meat. I have a well balance diet, and its healthy. Study Questions: 1: Farming has been described as managing land to keep it in an early stage of succession. What does this mean, and how is it achieved? Because we need and depend on the products that farm produce. Achieved by maintainig the farm and the animals living within.. 2: Keep track of the food you eat during one day and make a food chain linking yourself with the WEbsite. sources of those foods. Determine the biomass (grams) and energy (kilocalories) you have eaten. 21k = 1g

Using an average of 5Kcal/g, then using the information on food packaging or assuming that your net production is 10% efficient in terms of energy intake, how much additional energy might you have stored during the day? (What is your weight gain from the food you have eaten?) 5kcal/g 10%