Environments and Ecosystems

Key Issues

Titles

Chapters

• Adaptations
• Animals and plants may be adapted for survival in the conditions where they normally live eg deserts, the Arctic
• Animals and plants may be adapted to cope with specific features of their environment eg thorns, poisons and warning colours to deter predators
• Animals often compete with each other for food, mates and territory
• At each stage in a food chain, less material and less energy are contained in the biomass of the organisms
• availability of light
• availability of water
• be able to interpret data on climate change
• be able to interpret food chains
• be able to interpret food webs
• be able to produce a food web from data food provided
• Biodiversity
• Biomass
• by the time the microorganisms and detritus feeders have broken down the waste products and dead bodies of organisms in ecosystems and cycled the materials as plant nutrients, all the energy originally captured by green plants has been transferred
• Carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide when these organisms respire
• carry out fieldwork, including the use of sampling techniques, eg quadrats and pitfall traps, to investigate the physical factors affecting the distribution and type of living organism found in a local habitat
• changes in seasonal temperature
• Chromosomes
• Chromosomes carry genes that control the characteristics of the body
• Cloning Techniques
• Comparison of biodiversity in habitats
• Competition Between Animals
• Competition Between Plants
• Conservation and farm management
• consumers (primary, secondary and tertiary)
• Decay Processes
• decomposers (the role of bacteria and fungi)
• Deforestation and its effect on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide
• Distribution and abundance of plants in an area
• Efficiency in Food Production
• Efficiency of energy transfer in food chains
• ENERGY AND NUTRIENT TRANSFER
• Energy loss from food chains
• Energy transfer through food chains
• explain how the effects of environmental change on plants and animals will affect food webs
• extent of cultivation
• Factors affecting the process of decay
• Food chains and pyramids of biomass
• Gametes
• Genetic Engineering
• Green plants capture a small part of the solar energy which reaches them
• In a stable community, the processes which remove materials are balanced by processes which return materials. The materials are constantly cycled
• In the carbon cycle: carbon dioxide is removed from the environment by green plants for photosynthesis
• Living things remove materials from the environment for growth and other processes
• Loss of energy and biomass between trophic levels
• Loss of Energy in the Food Chain
• Many microorganisms are also more active when there is plenty of oxygen
• Materials decay because they are broken down (digested) by micro-organisms
• Maximising energy transfer in food production
• Microorganisms
• Microorganisms digest materials faster in warm, moist conditions
• nature of energy flow
• Organisms have features (adaptations) which enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live
• Plants often compete with each other for light and for water and nutrients from the soil
• Plants' Use of Solar Energy
• producers
• Pyramids of biomass
• Radiation from the Sun is the source of energy for most communities of living organisms
• recall that intensive farming (and the burning of fossil fuels) cause changes to the environment that affect organisms
• Reproduction
• some of the carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere when green plants respire
• Stages in Food Chains
• Sun as a primary source of energy
• Survival
• Techniques used to maximise food production
• The amounts of material and energy contained in the biomass of organisms is reduced at each successive stage in a food chain because respiration supplies all the energy needs for living processes, including movement. Much of this energy is eventually lost
• The amounts of material and energy contained in the biomass of organisms is reduced at each successive stage in a food chain because some materials and energy are always lost in the organisms' waste materials
• The amounts of material and energy contained in the biomass of organisms is reduced at each successive stage in a food chain because these losses are especially large in mammals and birds whose bodies must be kept at a constant temperature which is usuall
• The biomass at each stage can be drawn to scale and shown as a pyramid of biomass
• The Carbon Cycle
• The carbon cycle including the role of microorganisms
• The carbon from the carbon dioxide is used to make carbohydrates, fats and proteins which make up the body of plants
• The constant cycling of carbon is called the carbon cycle
• The Cycle of Materials
• The decay process releases substances which plants need to grow
• The efficiency of food production can also be improved by restricting energy loss from food animals by limiting their movement and by controlling the temperature of their surroundings
• The information that results in plants and animals having similar characteristics to their parents is carried by genes which are passed on in the sex cells (gametes) from which the offspring develop
• The mass of living material (biomass) at each stage in a food chain is less than it was at the previous stage
• The nitrogen cycle
• The nucleus of a cell contains chromosomes
• These materials are returned to the environment either in waste materials or when living things die and decay
• This energy is stored in the substances which make up the cells of the plants
• This means that the efficiency of food production can be improved by reducing the number of stages in food chains
• To survive, organisms require a supply of materials from their surroundings and from the other living organisms there
• understand how changes in the environment are affecting plant flowering times, animal behaviour and the distribution of animals and plants
• understand that materials are recycled to maintain the balance in the environment, including carbon cycle
• understand that materials are recycled to maintain the balance in the environment, including combustion
• understand that materials are recycled to maintain the balance in the environment, including fossilisation
• understand that materials are recycled to maintain the balance in the environment, including photosynthesis
• understand that materials are recycled to maintain the balance in the environment, including respiration
• understand that there is a limit to the number of trophic levels in food chains
• understand the components of food chains and food and webs webs
• understand the nitrogen cycle - cycling of protein, to include decay and decomposition, nitrification, nitrogen fixation and denitrification
• when animals respire some of this carbon becomes carbon dioxide and is released into the atmosphere
• when green plants are eaten by animals and these animals are eaten by other animals, some of the carbon becomes part of the fats and proteins which make up their bodies
• when plants and animals die, some animals and microorganisms feed on their bodies