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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Name three important needs for water
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Photosynthesis, digestion, & cellular respiration
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How is water distributed through the biosphere?
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Hydrologic or water cycle
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What draws water back to the earth?
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Gravity
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What is transpiration?
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Water leaving plants and trees (like evaporation)
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What determines which plants to grow where?
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The amount of precipitation received by that area
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What is an aquifer?
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Water saturated zone of soil and rock
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Name two ways water travels from land to enter the ocean.
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aquifers & runoff from the surface
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What does runoff include?
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Rivers, melting snowfields, & glaciers
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How much water enters the hydrologic cycle?
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Over 80%
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How much water falls back as rain?
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52%
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What are macronutrients?
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Large quantities: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus
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What are micronutrients?
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Trace quantities: Iodine, Zinc, & others
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What is the role of primary producers?
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Incorporate material substances into organic compounds, then be eaten. (Plants)
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Primary Consumer?
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Consume primary producer. (Cow)
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Secondary Consumer?
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Consume primary producer. (Human)
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Decomposer?
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Release material back into nonliving environment. (Fungus)
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Where is most of the Earth's carbon located and in what form?
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Atmosphere; Carbon dioxide
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How does carbon enter the biotic part of the ecosystem?
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Photosynthesis
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What function do plants have in the forest in the carbon cycle?
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They take carbon in CO_2 and turn it into organic compounds of glucose, starch, cellulose, and carbs
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How is carbon dioxide returned to the atmosphere?
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Respiration in plants
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Primary producer in Carbon cycle?
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Plants
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What happens when primary and secondary consumers die?
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Organic matter enters soil through decay
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What do detritus feeders contribute to the carbon cycle?
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They decompose, break down through decay, and return carbon to the atmosphere
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What is a fossil fuel?
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Carbon under high pressure & temperature
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How does carbon get in the oceans?
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Carbon bonds with calcium to form calcium carbonate in shells & mollusks
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What percent of the air is nitrogen?
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78%
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Why is nitrogen essential to life?
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Key component of nucleic acids & amino acids
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How do plants & animals get nitrogen if not from the atmosphere?
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Nitrogen fixing bacteria in soil & roots, soil to ammonia
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What are nitrogen fixing bacteria?
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bacteria with root modules that convert soil to ammonia
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What is a major reservoir for ammonia?
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Soil
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Why do herbivores need nitrogen?
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Synthesis of amino acid, proteins, & nucleic acids
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What is denitrification?
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Breaks down nitrogen in soil & releases it into atmosphere.
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Why is phosphorus an important biological molecule?
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It's needed to make ATP & NADP
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What happens to phosphorus that erodes from rock & soil?
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Unites with oxygen to form phosphate & goes to water
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How are phosphates incorporated into the organic molecules in plants & animals?
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Water gives phosphate to plants
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What happens to the phosphates when plants & animals die?
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It's returned to water & becomes waste as well
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What happens to phosphorus that is carried by runoff to the oceans?
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Becomes phosphate in marine sediment
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How are the phosphates incorporated into the organic molecules in aquatic plants & animals?
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Fish & plants take it in through bones
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What is different about the phosphorus cycle as compared to the water, carbon, & nitrogen cycles?
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The atmosphere is not involved and its inorganic
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