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| A network of interdependent components and processes with materials and energy flowing from one component of the system to another. Like your nervous system or a security system. |
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| A complex assemblage of animals, plants, and their environment, through which materials and energy move. |
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-State variables (also called compartments), which store resources such as energy, matter, or water.
-Flows, or the pathways by which those resources move from one state variable to another. |
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| Receive inputs from their surroundings and produce outputs that leave the system. |
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| Exchanges no energy or matter with its surroundings. |
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| Energy and matter that flow into, through, and out of a system. |
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| Increases a process or component |
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| Diminishes a process or component. |
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| When the characteristics of a whole system are greater than the sum of its parts. |
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| Anything that takes up space and has mass. |
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| Principle of Conservation of Matter |
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| Under ordinary circumstances, matter is neither created nor destroyed but rather is recycled over and over again. |
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| Substances that cannot be broken down into simpler forms by ordinary chemical reactions. |
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| Smallest particles that exhibit the characteristics of an element |
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| Atoms are composed of a nucleus, made of... |
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| ...positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons, circled by negatively charged electrons. |
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| Number of protons per atom. |
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| Sum of protons and neutrons in each nucleus. |
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| Forms of a single element that differ in their atomic mass. |
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| Negatively (-) charged ions. |
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| Positively (+) charged ions. |
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| Pair or group of atoms that can exist as a single unit. |
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| Opposite charges hold them together. |
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| Atoms that share electrons. |
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| Give up hydrogen ions [H+] in water. |
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| Bases/Alkaline Substances |
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| The numbers represent the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration in water. Alkaline (basic) solutions have a pH greater than 7. Acids (pH less than 7) have high concentrations of reactive H+ ions. Pure Water has a pH of 7. |
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| Four Major Categories of Bio-Organic Compounds |
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-Lipids=fats/oils
-Carbohydrates=suagrs/starches
-Proteins
-Nucleic acids= DNA/RNA/ATP (Adenosine
Triphosphate) |
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Adenine-Thymine
Guanine-Cytosine |
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| The ability to do work such as moving matter over a distance or causing a heat transfer between two objects at different temperatures. |
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| Energy contained in moving objects. |
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| Stored energy that is available for use. |
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| Energy stored in the food that you eat and the gasoline that you put into your car are also examples of potential energy that can be released to do useful work. |
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| First Law of Thermodynamics |
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| Second Law of Thermidynamics |
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| With each successive energy transfer or transformation in a system, less energy is available to do work. This law recognizes that disorder, or entropy, tends to increase in all natural systems. |
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| From our sun emit powerful forms of radiation, including potentially deadly ultraviolet and nuclear radiation. |
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Occurs in tiny organelles called chloroplasts that reside within plant cells.
The most important key to this process is chlorophyll, a unique green molecule.
Photosynthesis relies on two interconnected cyclic sets of reactions referred to as the light dependent and light independent reactions. |
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| All the members of a species living in a given area at the same time. |
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| All of the populations of organisms living and interacting in a particular area. |
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| A biological community and its physical environment. |
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| An organism’s feeding status in an ecosystem. |
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| Primary Producers/Autotrophs |
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| Feed themselves using only sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and minerals. |
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| Consumers of the chemical energy harnessed by the primary producers. |
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| (Consumers)Plants and Meat. |
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| Feed on all trophic levels. |
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| Clean up dead carcasses of larger animals. |
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| Consume litter, debris, and dung. |
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| Complete the final breakdown and recycling of organic materials. |
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The carbon cycle begins with photosynthetic organisms taking up carbon dioxide. This is called carbon fixation because carbon is changed from gaseous CO2 to an organic molecules like sugar.
This sugar molecule is absorbed into the bloodstream, of animals where it is made available to the cells for cellular respiration or the production of more complex biomolecules.
If it is used in respiration, it may be exhaled as CO2 in an hour or less, and a plant could take up that exhaled CO2 the same afternoon.The carbon atoms from the sugar molecule could remain a part of the body until it decays after death.
Similarly, carbon in the wood of a thousand-year-old tree will be released only when fungi and bacteria digest the wood and release carbon dioxide as a by-product of their respiration.
Recycling may take a very long time. Fossil fuels like coal and oil are the remains of organisms that lived millions of years ago. Their carbon atoms are not released until the coal and oil are burned. |
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Plants acquire nitrogen from nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in and around their roots.
These bacteria combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to make ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+).
Other bacteria then combine ammonia with oxygen to form nitrites (NO2–).
A third group of bacteria converts nitrites to nitrates (NO3–), which green plants can absorb and use.
Plant cells absorb nitrates, and use them to build amino acids and eventually proteins.Plant proteins are consumed by animals and incorporated into their own protein molecules.
Nitrogen reenters the environment through the death of organisms. Fungi and bacteria decompose dead organisms, releasing ammonia and ammonium ions for nitrate formation.
Denitrifying bacteria break down nitrates (NO3-) into N2 and nitrous oxide (N2O), gases that return to the atmosphere. |
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The phosphorus cycle takes millions of years.
Minerals become available to organisms after they are released from rocks or salts.
Producer organisms take in inorganic phosphorus, incorporate it into organic molecules, and then pass it on to consumers.
In this way, phosphorus cycles through ecosystems.
Excess phosphates in bodies of water can stimulate explosive growth of algae, upsetting ecosystem stability.In the phosphorus cycle, natural movement of phosphorus is slight, involving recycling within ecosystems and some erosion and sedimentation of phosphorus bearing rock. Use of phosphate (PO4−3) fertilizers and cleaning agents increases phosphorus in aquatic systems, causing eutrophication. The phosphorus cycle occurs in geologic time. Phosphorus is gained from rocks and used, ends up in the sea, sedimentation forms new rocks, which in geologic time are uplifted. |
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Most of the earth’s sulfur is tied up underground in rocks and minerals; weathering, emissions from deep seafloor vents, and volcanic eruptions release this inorganic sulfur into the air and water.
Living organisms, especially bacteria, also sequester sulfur in biogenic deposits or release it into the environment.Human activities also release large quantities of sulfur, primarily through burning fossil fuels. These processes can contribute to acid precipitation.
The biogenic sulfur emissions of oceanic phytoplankton may play a role in global climate.
The phytoplankton release sulfur compounds into the atmosphere which can reflect sunlight, cooling the earth.
This may be a feedback mechanism that keeps Earth’s temperature within a suitable range for life. |
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