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 one species indirectly influences of another in an ecosystem 2: Explain WHY the Sea Otter is considered the Keystone Species in this ecosystem. (Hint:Explain the food chain) The Sea Otter is a Keystone Species because they are the species that can limit or add abundance to the diversity of species in the ecosystem. Without Sea Otters, then the ecosystem would be balanced since the number of sea urchins is reduced, letting more kelp grow. 3: Why were Sea Otters endangered and how did their numbers rebound? Sea Otters are endangered because they were almost hunted down to extinction and they were brought back because of the act and laws that protected them. 5.1- The Ecosystem: Sustaining Life on Earth 1: Define Ecosystem Structure: the two major parts of an ecosystem, living and nonliving 2: What two main processes must occur to maintain an ecosystem? The two main processes are a cycling of chemical elements and a flow of energy.

5.2- Ecological Communities and Food Chains 1: What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? A food chain is much more simple than a food web. A food chain follows a basic triangle shape, while a food web has more links within each species. 2: Define: Trophic Level: a level of feeding of organisms 3: Define: Autotrophs: the organisms that are able to create their own food

Heterotrophs: the organisms that are not autotrophs and must eat to survive Carnivores: meat eating organisms Herbivores: organisms that eat autotrophs and plants Decomposers: the organisms that eat the dead organic material 4: Explain the food web of Yellowstone Hot Springs. Explain each trophic level (include a photo). The food web of Yellowstone Hot Springs includes about 20 species. The Spider mite, Dolichopodid fly, awasp, dragonfly, and Killdeer( 3rd trophic level) eat the Ephydrid flies, who ate the photosynthetic bacteria and algae. The organisms in the 3 rd trophic level are eaten by the decomposers in the 4th trophic level. 5: Explain a pelagic ecosystem. Explain each trophic level (include photos). A pelagic ecosystem is an ecosystem that is in the open ocean. The first trophic level are the planktonic algae and photosynthetic bacteria. The 2nd is the are zooplankton and small fish that eat the previous trophic level organisms. The 3rd eat the organisms in the 2nd level like other fish and invertebrates. 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? We should include people within the ecosystem because the human species is part of nature because we are omnivores.

5.3- Ecosystems as Systems 1: Why are ecosystems considered to be OPEN systems? Ecosystems are considered OPEN Systems because energy and matter flow in and out of them. 2: Define: Watershed: a boundary that drains all the excess water from the ecosystem

5.4- Biological Production and Ecosystem Energy Flow 1: Define: Energy: the ability to do work and move matter

2: Explain: Ecosystem Energy Flow - What two ways does energy enter an ecosystem? Ecosystem energy flow is when the movement of energy through an ecosystem from the external environment through a series of organisms and goes back to the external environment. The two ways energy enters an ecosystem by heat energy transferring and energy fixed by organisms and moving through food webs.

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. The First Law of Thermodynamics is also known as the law of conservation of energy. It is when energy is neither created or destroyed but changed from one form to another. 2: What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics say? This law states no use of energy in the real world can ever be 100% efficient. 3: Define Entropy (give an example). Entropy is the measure of decrease in order. The engineer produced some furniture, created the lumber into tables and chairs. The system increased the order with an increase in disorder. 4: What is an intermediate system? And intermediate system is when the ecosystem has to lie between a source of usable energy source and energy sink.

5.5- Biological Production and Biomass 1: What is biomass? Biomass is the total amount of organic matter in an ecosystem 2: Define the following: * Biological Production: the capture of usable energy from the environment to produce organic matter/ compounds * Gross Production: the increase in stored energy before any is used * Net Production: the amount of new energy stored after some energy has been used 3: What are the 3 measures that are used for biomass and biological production? The 3 measures are the quantity of organic material, energy stored, and carbon stored. 4: What is primary production- who carries this out? It is the production carried out by autotrophs.

5: What is secondary production- who is involved? It is the production carried out by heterotrophs. 6: Who are chemoautotrophs? Explain- where are they usually found? They are the autotrophic bacteria that can derive energy from inorganic sulfur compounds.

5.6- Energy Efficiency and Transfer Efficiency 1: What is energy efficiency? It is the ratio of output to input, and the amount of useful work obtained from some amount of available energy. 2: How would energy efficiency look with a wolf and moose population? Explain. The wolf eats the moose that has, in the wolfs point of view, a lot of energy stored in its muscle and fat. That causes the wolf to use the energy gained from the moose to hunt and travel . 3: What is food-chain or trophic level efficiency? A food-chain or trophic level of efficiency is the ratio of production of one trophic level to the production of the next lovwer trophic level. 4: Generally, how much energy is lost to heat when being transferred between trophic levels? There is about 90% of energy lost.

5.7- Ecological Stability and Succession 1: What is ecological succession? It is when the ecosystem recovers from a damage. 2: Compare and contrast primary and secondary succession- give an example of each. They are the processes of an ecosystem recovering from a damage or event. Primary succession is when there is not soil left from the damage, so it is a longer process. An example would be coral reefs that form on lava and cool from the ocean. Secondary succession is when there is soil left, so the growth of plants and animals is much faster compared to the primary succession. An example would be a forest recovering from a wildfire. 3: Explain how succession would look in a Dune. It would start with a dune, then dune grass comes. The dune grass creates a covering, then the seeds grow, then larger plants grow into a forest.

4: Explain how succession would look in a Bog. In a bog, a sedge puts floating runners. They form a network, allowing the stems of the sedge to grow through photosynthesis. Soil develops from the wind particles, and seeds land on the mat and germinate. The floating mat becomes thicker through shrubs and trees. 5: Explain how succession would look in an old-field. In an old-field, the plants that adapted to harsh temperatures come and grow on the land. Then larger plants and trees grow, creating a forest. 6: Explain how succession would look in a coral reef. In a coral reef, corals grow on a surface and produce calcium carbonate. As one coral dies, the new one grows over the old. This allows the coral reefs to be filled with different species.

5.9- How Species Change Succession 1: Explain facilitation in succession and where is it most common? Facilitation is when an earlier-successional species changes the local environment that make it suitable for another species in a later successional stage. It is most common in tropical rainforests. 2: Explain interference in succession and what it can lead to. It is the situations where an earlier successional stage changes the environment to make unsuitable for a later species. It can lead to a growth of new seeds. 3: What is chronic patchiness? When does this occur? It is when species does not interact through succession.

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? It decreases because the energy is lost at each higher level. 2: Why it is appropriate to use mass to represent energy content? We use mass to represent it because it shows the amount of mass needed for the next level.

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 in the pyramid? (show your work). 333000000g * 21= 6993000000 4: Make a list of environmental arguments for and against an entirely vegetarian diet for people. FOR: Lower human footprint More food available for organisms

AGAINST: Less nutrients No monitoring of over-eating organisms

What might be the consequences for the United States agriculture if everyone in the country began to eat lower on the food chain? The agriculture and meat industry would lose money and jobs. 5: How low do you eat on the food chain? Would you be willing to eat lower? Explain. I do not think I eat very low on the food chain because I have meat a couple times a week. I would be willing to eat lower, but not cut meat out my diet. 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? This means that the farmers allow growth of plants that are in the early stage of succession, but they do not allow the land to continue the succession. It is achieved by the monitoring of plants and animals that are on the land, and getting rid of the plants that continue the succession process. 2: Keep track of the food you eat during one day and make a food chain linking yourself with the sources of those foods. Determine the biomass (grams) and energy (kilocalories) you have eaten. 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?)