Environment Bronze Qs Unit 3

A decomposer is an organism that breaks down organic material Bacteria and fungi are examples of decomposers

They help with cycling important nutrients such as nitrogen and carbon through an ecosystem They move the nutrients from biotic, to abiotic parts of a ecosystem. Then the nutrients become available to producers

Without decomposers, there would be no recycling of nutrients needed by producers for making new organic matter. Meaning the ecosystem would eventually run out of nutrients and stop working

Food chains describe how energy in the form of food passes from one organism to another in an ecosystem This is helps ecologist divide organisms that make up a food chain into three categories (producers, consumers, and decomposers)

Primary consumers -Eat plants (herbivores) Examples Mice Rabbits Secondary Consumers -Eat other organisms (carnivores) Examples Foxes Wolves

As energy passes through each link in the food chain, some if it is lost as heat. Additionally, not all organisms (such as primary consumers) are consumed by carnivores) Thus each trophic level has less energy

The lack of available energy (at higher trophic level) limits the number of consumers (predators) that can exist at those levels within a particular ecosystem. Therefore, there will always be fewer predators in a ecosystem than primary consumers.

Aquifer Locked up in glaciers and snow caps

During the evaporation phase of the cycle, the water molecules leave, while the other nasty stuff, stays behind. Thus purifying the water

Waste and decomposition (living organisms (the biotic part of the environment) produce waste with the nitrogen that goes to the ground (the abiotic part of the environment) When living organisms die- the nitrogen in their bodies then get’s absorbed by the abiotic part of the environment through decomposition .

Bacteria are the most important because they make up the majority of living organisms who can break down nitrogen in the air and ground

Producers, plants, such as trees and bushes

Snake and frog example -While the snake is hunting or looking for the frog, the frog is using up energy to hop around (energy that the snake can’t use) -There are many frogs that the snake won’t be able to eat (meaning there is energy they won’t even be able to use) -Even when the snake does manage to capture one frog, it does not (and can not) digest all the Frog’s energy

o Lithosphere to Atmosphere ( carbon is released through decomposition of dead organic matter in the soil and through the metabolic processes of soil microbes o -Atmosphere to Hydrosphere (Carbon is absorbed by the ocean and other bodies of water) o -Hydrosphere to Biosphere (Carbon is absorbed by marine plants and animals during photosynthesis

Before there was more carbon in the lithosphere (the earth (ground) than the atmosphere (air). After burning fossil fuels, there is less carbon in the lithosphere and more in the atmosphere because more fossil fuels were being taken from the ground (lithosphere) and burned into the air (atmosphere)

(Food chains could exist (Producers to Decomposers -recycle,) they are about the flow of energy (Between the Producer and Decomposer) Thus even if herbivores, omnivores, carnivores were not in the picture, there would still be a food chain)

The population would decrease in higher trophic levels Because there is Less and less energy at each trophic level)

If most of the deer were killed, there would be a decrease in carnivore populations (The deer represented energy source for the above trophic levels, thus the carnivore population will decrease, while the producers population will increase)

If decomposers disappear, there would be no nutrient cycle, meaning the ecosystem would eventually run out of nutrients and stop working. (A bunch of dead organisms and stop nutrient cycle, meaning ecosystem will collapse. Because we have nothing to break down the decaying matter, and we don’t have a way to recycle nutrients)