All Flashcards
What are the steps of energy transfer in a food chain?
Producers capture solar energy, consumers eat producers, energy is transferred up trophic levels, energy is lost as heat at each step.
Describe the process of photosynthesis.
Plants use sunlight, water, and CO2 to produce glucose and oxygen.
Describe the process of cellular respiration.
Organisms break down glucose to release energy (ATP), producing CO2 and water.
What is solar energy?
The ultimate source of energy for almost all ecosystems.
What are producers?
Organisms that convert solar energy into chemical energy (glucose) through photosynthesis.
What are herbivores?
Organisms that eat producers.
What are carnivores?
Organisms that eat herbivores or other carnivores.
What are decomposers?
Organisms that break down dead organisms, recycling nutrients.
What is chemical energy?
The form of energy that moves through the trophic pyramid.
What is cellular respiration?
The process that converts glucose into usable chemical energy (ATP) and releases thermal energy.
What is entropy?
A measure of disorder in a system; it increases every time energy is transformed.
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
Energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed.
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
Every time energy is transformed, entropy (disorder) increases.
What is the 10% rule?
Only about 10% of energy from one trophic level moves up to the next.
Define Trophic Level
Each step in a food chain or food web.
What is the effect of energy loss as heat?
Limits the length of food chains and the number of trophic levels.
What is the effect of low energy transfer rates?
High entropy in trophic levels.
What is the effect of the 10% rule on top predators?
Top predators need large territories to find enough food.
What is the effect of photosynthesis?
It allows energy to enter the food chain.