ECOSYSTEMS

ECOSYSTEMS(short review)

Biology period 5

How are producers and consumers different?

Producers have the ability to generate their own sources of energy. The sun is not considered a producer. Consumers must get their energy from an outside source through eating.

How are food chains and food webs different?

Food chains are a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another. Food webs on the other hand, show all the trophic eating related interactions between various species in an ecosystem.

What is the 10% energy transfer rule?

10% of the energy that’s stored as biomass in one trophic level per unit time ends up stored as biomass in the next trophic level per the same unit time.

How is community structure measured?

Species richness is the number of different species in a particular community. Species diversity is a function of both the number of different species in the community(species richness) and their relative abundances(species evenness).

Why are keystone species important to the community structure?

They help maintain community structure, specifically species diversity. They are more likely to belong to higher trophic levels(to be top predators) and they act in more diverse ways than foundation species, which tend to modify their environment.