Week+Thirteen

This week your assignment is to read Chapter Ten: Cycles and Patterns in the Biosphere. You have a vocabulary posting assignment, a reflection to write, and a quiz on Blackboard. This is a chapter near and dear to my heart. I have several videos and articles posted on the chapter ten page: http://schmidtphysicalgeography.wikispaces.com/Ch+10 - I always show this video [] on Rachel Carson in class, so I hope you will watch it. I have a feeling you will all come away from this chapter with a greater understanding of why we have environmental regulations, and you may not want to use pesticide any longer (I do not, because you cannot control it once you let it loose in the environment.) We always have a good talk about the mountain lion P22, AKA, the Griffith Park Mountain Lion - who was poisoned by rodenticide (rat poison) not intentionally, but because once you let it out into the environment, it will travel through the food chain and start taking out the creatures at the top because of something we call bioaccumulation. Well my friends, guess where we are in the food chain and what that means for us? Please take a look at the articles about P22, or watch the videos.

There is a lot of information in this small chapter, and I think most of it is really important to us. I have several articles and videos on the page to try to show my students how these thing in this chapter are real and are happening all around us all the time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy teaching it. Another video I like to show in class is about the wolves in Yellowstone and what happened when they were reintroduced - [] I know that some of the material in this chapter is not "happy material" but this video will help you feel better.



1 bioaccumulation

Bioaccumulation refers to the accumulation of substances, such as pesticides, or other chemicals in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost. -Leticia Villasenor 

2 biogeography -Lidia Quintanilla Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through (geological) time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area.



3 biomass The total mass (or weight) of all living organisms in an ecosystem or per unit area -Vanessa Loera

4 biota- Biota is the total complex of plant and animal life. -Andrea Anguiano 5 carbon cycle -Reina Garcia The change from carbon dioxide to living matter and back to carbon dioxide 6 carnivore - Lisa Morales A carnivore, meaning 'meat eater', is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging.

7 decomposers-Monica Gonzalez

an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.
 * a device or installation that is used to break down a chemical substance.[[image:http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/foodchain/decomposers.gif width="371" height="282"]]

8 denitrification

-George Sigar
 * Denitrification ** is a microbially facilitated process of nitrate reduction (performed by a large group of heterotrophic facultative anaerobic bacteria) that may ultimately produce molecular nitrogen (N 2 ) through a series of intermediate gaseous nitrogen oxide products.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denitrification

9 edaphic factors 10 eutrophication-Paul Garcia === Eutrophication is characterized by excessive plant and algal growth due to the increased availability of one or more limiting growth factors needed forphotosynthesis, such as sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrient fertilizers. Eutrophication occurs naturally over centuries as lakes age and are filled in with sediments. ===

11 extinction -Jessica Quintanilla

Extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point.

12 fauna

-Sara Sanchez
 * Fauna** is all of the animal life of any particular region or time.

13 flora - Lucinda Crespin

In Selvas, flora is abundant in broadleaf evergreen vegetation that thrives in warm and moist climate conditions, this type of climate produces an abundant amount of natural vegetation. In other climates, natural fires create a healthier and more diverse ecosystem and the recycled bound-up nutrients allow vigorous growth of grasses, herbs and shrubs. This new vegatative growth caused by natural fires support large populations of arthropods and rodents, and invigorate the food chain. Flora is all the plants (trees, shrubs, leaves, grass) in a particular region.



14 food chain - The sequence of the transfer of food energy from one organism to another in an ecological community. A food chain begins with a ** producer **, usually a green plant or alga that creates its own food through photosynthesis. In the typical predatory food chain, producers are eaten by ** primary consumers ** (herbivores) which are eaten by ** secondary consumers ** (carnivores), some of which may in turn be eaten by ** tertiary consumers ** (the top carnivore in the chain). ◇ Many species of animals in an ecological community feed on both plants and animals and thus play multiple roles in the chain. Parasites feed on living tissues, generally without killing their hosts, and may themselves be hosts to smaller parasites. In addition, organisms that die without being eaten are consumed by detritivores, some of which serve as prey for other consumers. The complex system of interrelated food chains in an environment is known as a ** food web. **

~Monique D. Foreman 15 food pyramid- A diagram representing the optimal number of servings to be eaten each day from each of the basic food groups.

- Christina Camarena 16 herbivore

A herbivore is an animal that gets its energy from eating plants, and only plants. Many herbivores have special digestive systems that let them digest all kinds of plants, including grasses. Herbivores need a lot of energy to stay alive, so if will seem like they are eating all day long, they are.

Karen Villalpando

17 hydrologic cycle

The water **cycle **, also known as the **hydrologic cycle ** or the H 2 O **cycle **, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_ cycle~

~Angie Johnson~ 18 interspecific competition

**Interspecific competition**, in ecology, is a form of **competition** in which individuals of different species **compete** for the same resource in an ecosystem From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_Arianna Fulton

19 intraspecific competition 20 LIMITING FACTORS- a limiting factor is anything that prevents population growth.



-SAHLAH STORKS

21 Linnaean classification system 22 net primary productivity 23 nitrification Barbara Ciaravino

Nitrification is the process by which ammonium or ammonia is oxidized into nitrate by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria or AOB, often **//Nitrosomonas spp//,** and the NO₂⁻ further oxidized into nitrate (NO₃⁻) by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria or NOB, often **//Nitrobacter spp.//**

The two processes of nitrification are called nitritation and nitratation. The bacterial groups are both chemo-litho-autotropic - that is their only energy source is chemical energy, their electron-donor is an inorganic compound and their carbon source is plain carbon dioxide, or practice bicarbonate.



24 nitrogen cycle- The ** nitrogen cycle ** is the process by which nitrogen is converted between its various chemical forms. This transformation can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of earths atmosphere (78%) is nitrogen, making it the largest pool of nitrogen. However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems.



-ANGEL ABARCA

25 nitrogen fixation: Sandra Calderon


 * Nitrogen fixation ** is a process in which **nitrogen **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> (N <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">2 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">) in the atmosphere is converted into ammonium (NH <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">4+ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">) or **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">nitrogen **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> dioxide (NO. 2), for example. Atmospheric **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">nitrogen **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> or molecular **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">nitrogen **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> (N <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">2 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">) is relatively inert: it does not easily react with other chemicals to form new compounds.



26 oxygen cycle - **is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of oxygen within its three main reservoirs: the atmosphere (air), the total content of biological matter within the biosphere (the global sum of all ecosystems), and the lithosphere (Earth's crust). Failures in the oxygen cycle within the hydrosphere (the combined mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of planet Earth) can result in the development of hypoxic zones. The main driving factor of the oxygen cycle is photosynthesis, which is responsible for the modern Earth's atmosphere and life on earth. (Lindsey Skaggs)**

27 photoperiodism 28 photosynthesis
 * // Photosynthesis is the process used by plants, algae and certain bacteria to harness energy from sunlight into chemical energy. //**




 * // [|What is Photosynthesis?] //**

29 plant respiration 30 plant succession Plant Succession is when an ecological change happens to an environment overtime. The timeframe can be days, months, years, centuries, and even, millenniums. An example of a change or plant succession could be an area that is isolated with no plant begins to branch off weeds, and then bushes, and trees, and after many years it’s a wild forest which can create a habitat for many animals. Cesar Melendez
 * // - //// Faraz Abbasi //**

31 primary consumers Animals that eat plants as the first stage in a food pyramid or chain. (Herbivores) Gilda Rodrigues 32 producers 33 secondary consumers media type="custom" key="28000171" <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 1901.5px; width: 1px;"> The sequence of the transfer of food energy from one organism to another in an ecological community. A food chain begins with a ** producer **, usually a green plant or alga that creates its own food through photosynthesis. In the typical predatory food chain, producers are eaten by ** primary consumers ** (herbivores) which are eaten by ** secondary consumers ** (carnivores), some of which may in turn be eaten by ** tertiary consumers ** (the top carnivore in the chain). ◇ Many species of animals in an ecological community feed on both plants and animals and thus play multiple roles in the chain. Parasites feed on living tissues, generally without killing their hosts, and may themselves be hosts to smaller parasites. In addition, organisms that die without being eaten are consumed by detritivores, some of which serve as prey for other consumers. The complex system of interrelated food chains in an environment is known as a ** food web. **