LIFESCI 7B Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Keystone Species, Climax Community, Carbon Cycle
4 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
Food webs trace cycling of carbon thru communities and ecosystems. Ecological community: set of all populations found in a given place. Primary producers: organism that takes up inorganic carbon, nitrogen, other compounds from environment. Converts them into organic compounds that provide food for other organisms in the local environment. First biological reservoir for carbon once it"s been taken out of the physical environment. Consumer: organism that obtains the carbon it needs for growth and reproduction from the foods it eats and gains energy by respiring food molecules. Primary producers -> primary consumers -> secondary consumers. Primary consumers transfer carbon from primary producers to a second biological reservoir & return some of the carbon to the air/water by respiration. Carbon originally xed by photosynthesis is returned to atmosphere by respiration of fungi, bacteria and other decomposers (organisms that break down dead tissue) Tracks passage of carbon atoms thru biological carbon cycle.
