Worksheet Ecosystems

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WORKSHEET: ECOSYSTEMS
1. The Nature of Ecosystems

A. Overview of the Participants
1. Regions on the earth function as systems running on energy
from the______ processed through various organisms.
2. __________________ are autotrophs that can capture sunlight
energy and incorporate it into organic compounds.
3. __________________ are heterotrophs that feed on tissues of
other organisms.
a. ___________eat plants.
b. ____________eat animals.
c. ________________ reside in or on living hosts and extract
energy from them.
d. ___________________ eat a variety of organisms.
4. ___________include small invertebrates that feed on partly
decomposed particles of organic matter (detritus).
5. ________________ are also heterotrophs and include fungi and
bacteria that extract energy from the remains or products of
organisms.
6. An _______________ is a complex of organisms interacting with
one another and with the physical environment.
a. Ecosystems are open systems through which energy
_____________and materials are cycled.
Ecosystems 1
b. Ecosystems require energy and __________input; they
generate energy (usually as heat) and nutrient output.
B. Structure of Ecosystems
1. _________ (“feeding”) levels are a hierarchy of energy transfers, or
bluntly stated, “Who eats whom?”
a. Level 1 (closest to the energy source) consists of
___________________; level 2 comprises _______________; and
levels 3 and above are_________________.
b. _______________feed on organisms from all levels.
2. Food chains cross-connect to form food webs.
a. A sequence of who eats whom is called a food chain; for
example, plant ——> cutworm ——> garter snake ——>
sandpiper ——> marsh hawk.
b. Interconnected food chains comprise ________________ in
which the same food resource is often part of more than one
food chain.
2. The Nature of Food Webs

A. How many energy transfers are there?
1. Energy that producers initially capture passes through no more
than four or five transfers.
2. Energy is ____________ at each transfer.
B. There are ___________ categories of food webs.
1. Energy flows into ecosystems from the______________.
a. Energy ____________ through ecosystems by way of
grazing food webs, in which energy flows from plants to
herbivores and then to carnivores.
b. In____________ food webs, it flows mainly from plants
through decomposers and detritivores.
2. Energy leaves ecosystems through ________________ generated
by metabolism.
3. DDT in Food Webs

A. DDT, which was an effective chemical to kill mosquitoes,
______________________ in fatty tissues and results in biological
magnification and unexpected nontarget effects.
Ecosystems 2
B. Even though DDT has been ___________________since the 1970s,
the chemical is very persistent in certain sections of the
environment, namely sediments.
4. Studying Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

A. What Is Primary Productivity?
1. ________________________ is the rate at which producers get
and store energy in their tissues.
a. ____________ productivity is the total rate of
photosynthesis for the ecosystem during a specified interval.
b. ________ ecosystem production is the energy left over
after that which is used by the plants and soil organisms is
subtracted from the gross primary production.
2. Many _________ impact net production, including body size,
mineral availability, temperature range, sunlight, and rainfall.
B. Ecological Pyramids
1. __________________ can be diagrammed as a pyramid in which
producers form a base for successive tiers of consumers above
them.
2. Pyramids can be of two basic types.
a. A __________________ makes provision for differences in
size of organisms by using the weight of the members in each
trophic level.
b. An _____________________ reflects the trophic structure
most accurately because it is based on energy losses at each
level.
5. Energy Flow Through Silver Springs

A. To construct an energy pyramid for a freshwater spring, you
must measure the _______________________ in each organism
and then multiply that by the ____________________.
B. Only about ____________________ of the energy entering one
level becomes available to organisms at the next level.
6. Overview of Biogeochemical Cycles
Ecosystems 3
A. ______________________ cycles influence the availability of
essential elements in ecosystems.
1. ______________ are available to producers as ions.
2. ______________________ are maintained by environmental
inputs and recycling activities.
3. The amount of nutrients being ______________ is greater than
the amount entering or leaving.
4. Environment _____________ are by precipitation, metabolism,
and weathering. Outputs are by runoff and evaporation.
B. There are three categories of _______________ cycles.
1. In the ____________________, oxygen and hydrogen move as
water molecules.
2. In the ________________________, elements can move in the
gaseous phase; examples include carbon and nitrogen.
3. In ____________________, the element does not have a gaseous
phase; an example is phosphorus.
7. Global Cycling of Water

A. Water is moved or stored by evaporation, precipitation, retention,
and transportation.
1. A __________________ rain or snow into a single river.
2. Nutrients are _______________ by plants to prevent their loss
by leaching.
B. The Water Crisis
1. Large-scale ________________________ accounts for nearly two-
thirds of the human population’s use of freshwater.
a. Salt buildup (_______________) of the soil and
waterlogging can result.
b. Withdrawal of underground water causes water
_________________ to drop.
2. About ___________________ of the world’s population depends
on groundwater for drinking water, but groundwater is being
polluted by _________________ chemicals leached from landfills
and waste dumps.
3. Human waste, insecticides, herbicides, chemicals, radioactive
materials, and heat can _____________ water.
Ecosystems 4
4. In the past decade, thirty-three nations have engaged in
________________ over reductions in water flow, pollution, and
silt buildup.
5. Most of the earth’s water is too ____________ for human
consumption or for agriculture.
a. _____________________ processes are available and can
be used when absolutely necessary.
b. However, desalinization is not cost effective in most
locales, and it uses valuable _______________ reserves to
provide the energy for the desalination equipment.
8. Carbon Cycle
A._______________ enters the atmosphere (where it exists as carbon
dioxide) by aerobic respiration, fossil-fuel burning, and volcanic
eruptions.
1. Carbon is ________________ from the atmosphere (and bodies
of water) by photosynthesizers and shelled organisms.
2. _________________ of buried carbon compounds millions of
years ago caused the formation of fossil fuels.
3. Burning of _______________ puts extra amounts of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere, an occurrence that may lead to global
warming—the greenhouse effect.
B. Most researchers think the _______________ buildup in the
atmosphere is amplifying the greenhouse effect.
9. Greenhouse Gases, Global Warming

A. _________________ effect is the name for the warming action of
the earth.
1. The greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone,
methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs) trap _____________as they
escape from the earth back into space.
2. Heat builds in the lower atmosphere—the greenhouse effect.
B. Evidence of Global Warming
1. _______________ have risen by one degree F since 1861.
2. Nine of the ten hottest years have occurred since ____________.
Ecosystems 5
10. Nitrogen Cycle
A. Nitrogen is a part of several steps in a cycling process.
1. In _________________ bacteria convert N2 to NH3, which is
then used in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids.
2. By _____________________ bacteria and fungi breakdown
nitrogenous compounds, forming ammonium.
3. _________________is a type of chemosynthesis where NH3 or
NH4+ is converted to NO2–; other nitrifying bacteria use the nitrite
for energy and release NO3–.
4. __________________is the release of nitrogen gas to the
atmosphere by the action of bacteria (NO2– and NO3–  N2).
B. Human Impact on the Nitrogen Cycle
1. Although the soil is enriched by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, soil
nitrogen is still scarce due to leaching, denitrification, and farming
methods that emphasize synthetic fertilizers.
2. Air pollutants, including oxides of nitrogen, contribute to soil
acidity.
3. Heavy _______________ applications not only are costly but
also are lost in runoff and harvested crops.
11. Phosphorus Cycle

A. _________________________ moves from land, to sediments in the
seas, and back to the land in its long-term geochemical phase of
the cycle.
1. In the ecosystem phase, plants take up the phosphorus from the
soil; it is then transferred to herbivores and carnivores, which
________________. Of all minerals, _________________is the most
limiting factor in all natural ecosystems.
B. Runoff from agricultural applications of fertilizers adds large
amounts of phosphorus to aquatic ecosystems; this is called
___________________________.
Ecosystems 6

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_________________________________________________________

1. The Nature of Ecosystems

2. The Nature of Food Webs

3. DDT in Food Webs

4. Studying Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

5. Energy Flow Through Silver Springs

6. Overview of Biogeochemical Cycles

7. Global Cycling of Water

9. Greenhouse Gases, Global Warming

11. Phosphorus Cycle

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