ENVIRON 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7, Mod 1, 4-8: Phospholipid, Calcium Carbonate, Biogeochemical Cycle
10 May 2018
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Chapter 7 Ecosystem Ecology (Modules 1, 4-8)
7.1 Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry
Biosphere: organisms on Earth and their interactions with the nonliving environment
Biogeochemical cycle: flow of matter through an ecosystem
Material Pools and Fluxes
Pools: where matter may reside (ex: atmosphere or soil)
Fluxes: rate at which matter moves from one pool to another (amount of element/unit of time)
o Can be positive and negative
Mass-balance accounting: knowing the mass of elements can account of for the changes in
abundance
Capital of a particular pool – the total amount of an element or molecules that it contains
o Equilibrium: when the capital of the element in the pool is constant
Residence time: average time that an atom of an element of molecule or compound spends in a
pool
Cycling time: average time that it takes an element of molecule to travel through the
biogeochemical cycle
Nutrients
Macronutrients: elements needed in comparatively large amounts
o Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur
Micronutrients: elements needed in very small amounts
o Molybdenum, manganese, and boron
Modules 2-3 notes in previous unit
7.4 The Carbon Cycle
Atmosphere and lithosphere – 45.2% oxygen and 29.5% silicon and 0.032% carbon
Most carbon found in sedimentary rock
Flux of carbon among atmosphere, terrestrial, and aquatic ecosystems depends on rate of
photosynthesis and rate at which carbon is burned/respired
Photosynthetic organisms – use light energy to add hydrogen ions and electrons to carbon
dioxide makes carbohydrates and other organic molecules
Carbohydrates and other organic molecules store chemical energy that is broken down by
organisms by cellular respiration
In cellular respiration, hydrogen is removed from and oxygen is added to organic compounds
organic compounds are converted back to carbon dioxide
Gross primary production (GPP): total amount of carbon dioxide that photosynthetic organisms
convert to organic carbon each year
o Half of GPP is used for photosynthetic organisms to carry out life functions
Net primary production (NPP): remaining half of the GPP; amount of organic carbon available to
all the non-photosynthetic organisms
Net ecosystem production (NEP): amount of organic carbon left each year after subtracting the
respiration of non-photosynthetic organisms from NPP
o NEP is 0 when the total carbon in the biomass of organisms in an ecosystem remains
constant
o NEP is positive when biomass of an ecosystem increases (ex: during succession)
o NEP is negative when an ecosystem is burned/degraded by human activities
Terrestrial Carbon
560 Pg of carbon stored in biomass
Most of the carbon stored in living biomass is found in terrestrial ecosystems
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Document Summary
Biosphere: organisms on earth and their interactions with the nonliving environment. Biogeochemical cycle: flow of matter through an ecosystem. Pools: where matter may reside (ex: atmosphere or soil) Fluxes: rate at which matter moves from one pool to another (amount of element/unit of time: can be positive and negative abundance. Mass-balance accounting: knowing the mass of elements can account of for the changes in. Capital of a particular pool the total amount of an element or molecules that it contains. Residence time: average time that an atom of an element of molecule or compound spends in a: equilibrium: when the capital of the element in the pool is constant pool. Cycling time: average time that it takes an element of molecule to travel through the biogeochemical cycle. Macronutrients: elements needed in comparatively large amounts: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Micronutrients: elements needed in very small amounts: molybdenum, manganese, and boron.
