Ch. 3

Also called acid rain

Decomposer bacteria convert organic material into ammonia and ammonium ions

Groundwater storage areas

Current conditions

Below C horizon, unweathered parent material

Very small soil particles

Very hot

Thin, outer section that is in lithosphere and biosphere

Nitrogen leaves soil as bacteria in waterlogged soil and in bottom sediment of lakes, oceans, swamps, and bogs convert NHx back into Nitrate/Nitrite and then into nitrogen gas.

Recycle nutrients in ecosystems by releasing enzymes that degrade dead organisms into simpler inorganic compounds that can be used by producers

Insects and scavengers that feed on the wastes or dead bodies of other organisms

Area where we can find a species

Life controls the earth’s processes or that life influences the earth’s life sustaining processes

Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass

Partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and animals and inorganic materials like clay silt and sand.

Subsoil, mostly inorganic matter and broken down rock.

Freshly fallen undecomposed or partially decomposed leaves twigs crop wasted animal waste fungi and other organic material.

Systems measurement to data analysis to system modeling to system modeling to system optimization

Where bacteria survive through chemosynthesis from hydrogen sulfide

As water seeps down, it dissolves stuff and carries it down to lower layers

Too much or too little of any factor can limit or prevent growth of a population

Rate at which producers use photosynthesis minus rate at which they use it for aerobic respiration NPP = GPP - R

Soil bacteria convert Ammonia into nitrite then nitrate, which is easily taken up by plants

Nitrogen gas is fixed to ammonia