Professional Documents
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Nutrient Cycles
We have learned the importance of recycling our trash. It allows us to use something again for another purpose and
prevents the loss of natural resources. But what happens to the waste in nature? Why aren’t we up to our necks in
natural refuse? Why is there always a supply of water? Why is there oxygen to breathe and carbon dioxide for
photosynthesis? Organic compounds in nature are also recycled. This recycling process converts the complex organic
compounds to simple, inorganic compounds, which then can be returned to nature to be used repeatedly.
5. Describe two methods by which water on land (in lakes and rivers) returns to the oceans.
Surface Runoff, Groundwater Flow
7. If the air contains high levels of pollutants, what effect might this have on water quality? The water might
become filled with pollutants and be reduced in its purity.
8. Which process(es) of the water cycle - precipitation, evaporation, condensation, runoff, percolation or
transpiration might contribute to the addition of pollutants to rivers, lakes, and oceans? Why? It distributes the
polluted water to everywhere else.
9. Which of the processes associated with the water cycle may be responsible for helping to clean or filter
water? Maybe evaporation? The water is the only thing light enough to become air.
10. The water cycle is a closed system, meaning no water enters from beyond the system nor leaves the system.
What does that say about the importance of keeping the water on Earth free from pollution? If we pollute the only
water we have, we're stuck with bad water for a very very long time. You can't get more clean water from space…
14. Wastes and dead organisms must be broken down in order for their components to be used again.
a. What organisms in the cycle carry out this process?
Decomposers (in this case fungi. AGAIN)
15. Not all dead organisms are taken in by decomposers. Instead of being immediately recycled, the carbon from
some organisms is stored in a carbon sink. Use Model 2 to answer the questions about long-term storage.
15. What is another way in which human activity is increasing the amount of atmospheric CO2, and what are
potential global effects of these changes in CO2 levels? Factories burning fossil fuels increase CO2, and the
increased CO2 increases Earth climate.
Model 3 – The Nitrogen Cycle
16. Model 3 illustrates how nature recycles
what natural resource?
Nitrogen (Nitrates)
19. By what process are animal wastes and dead organisms converted to other nitrogen-containing
compounds?
Decomposition
20. What is the only form of nitrogen that non-legume plants can take in and use?
Nitrates in soil
If the number of nitrifying bacteria decreased, N-containing molecules like ammonia wouldn't be broken down and
would build up as a result.
Energy Pyramids
All organisms need energy. Energy enters most ecosystems from the sun and flows through the ecosystem by way of food
webs. Pyramids of energy show the energy flow. Energy flows from one level to the next when organisms at a higher
level eat organisms from a lower one. Primary producers are the base, or bottom level, of a pyramid of energy. Most
primary producers convert light energy into food (chemical energy) through photosynthesis. When a first-level consumer
eats a primary producer, that consumer gets energy from the producer. Only 10% of the energy in the organism at one
level gets stored as energy in the bodies of the animal that eats them. Most of the energy is lost as heat or is used up by
the body processes of the organism. This rule is called the “10-percent rule.”
3. Remember that percentages are based on one-hundredths. The value 100% is equal to 100 one-hundredths or
100/100. The value 50% equals 50/100, which can also be written as the decimal 0.50. The value 5% equals
5/100 or 0.05. The value 0.5% equals 0.5/100 or 5/1000 or 0.005. Convert the following percentages into
one-hundredths and then into a decimal: 75%, 20%, and 8%.
75/100 = 0.75
20/100 = 0.20
8/100 = 0.08
4. Assume there are 1000 units of energy in the producer level of the energy pyramid. How many units of energy
are available at each of the three consumer levels? Show your calculations. Hint: First, change the percentages to
decimals.
100, 10, 1, 0.1
5. Suppose there are 500 units of energy available at the base of a pyramid of energy. How many units of that
energy will the first-level consumers store? How many units will the second-level consumers store?
First: 50
Second: 5
6. Why are there usually so few organisms at the top level of a pyramid of energy?
There isn't much energy available at the top, so top predators can only sustain a certain population before the
energy runs out and it declines again.
9. Adult krill feed on algae found in open water. Their larvae feed on algae found under the sea ice. More and more
sea ice is melting. Will melting sea ice affect the killer whale? Explain.
Yes. Less algae means less energy for everyone, including killer whales. They're population will be reduced.
Modeling
10. Draw a pyramid of energy to show how energy flows through the Antarctic food web. Use the pyramid above as a
model. Include four levels of consumers in addition to the producers in your pyramid. Write producers and
consumers names on each level. Show the amount of energy transferred in biomass at each level using the unit
Kcal (kilocalories). Assume that the total biomass of the producers is 10,000 Kcal. Remember to use the 10% rule
and convert to decimals first.