Download Ch. 7 TAR

AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
STUDY GUIDE: CHAPTER 7
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND
ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY
Key Terms
aquifer
atmosphere
biogeochemical cycles
biomass
biosphere
carbon cycle
closed system
convergent plate boundary
core
crust
denitrifying bacteria
divergent plate boundary
dynamic equilibrium
ecosystem
ecotone
emergent properties
eutrophication
evaporation
feedback loop
gross primary production
groundwater
Haber-Bosch process
homeostasis
hydrologic cycle
hydrosphere
hypoxia
igneous rock
landscape ecology
lava
lithification
lithosphere
magma
mantle
metamorphic rock
negative feedback loop
net primary productivity
nitrification
nitrogen cycle
nitrogen fixation
nitrogen-fixing bacteria
Chapter Objectives
1. Describe the nature of environmental
systems.
2. Define ecosystems and evaluate how living
and nonliving entities interact in ecosystemlevel ecology.
From the Reading
1.
Distinguish between negative
and positive feedback loops.
Give an example of each.
nutrient cycles
nutrients
open system
phosphorous cycle
plate tectonics
positive feedback loop
precipitation
productivity
rock cycle
runoff
secondary production
sediment
sedimentary rock
subduction
system
transform plate boundary
transpiration
water table
3. Compare and contrast how carbon,
phosphorous, nitrogen, and water cycle
through the environment.
4. Explain how plate tectonics and the rock
cycle shape the earth beneath our feet.
2. Explain how processes in
dynamic equilibrium
contribute to homeostasis.
3. Distinguish between open and
closed systems. Relate these
two types of systems to
Earth.
4. Explain why the Mississippi
River and the Gulf of Mexico
systems must be considered
together and not as
independent systems.
5. Distinguish between the
lithosphere, atmosphere,
hydrosphere, and biosphere.
Explain how the boundaries
are not exact.
6. Study Fig. 7.7 on p. 182.
a.What is the most productive
aquatic ecosystem?
Terrestrial ecosystem?
b.What abiotic factors
determine net primary
production in terrestrial and
ocean biomes?
7. Explain the difference
between gross primary
production and net primary
production. How do these
terms relate to net primary
productivity?
8. What are nutrients and why
are they important to
ecosystems?
9. Explain biogeochemical
cycles. Distinguish between
sources and sinks of the
geochemical cycles.
10. What roles do
photosynthesis, respiration,
and food webs play in the
carbon cycle.
11. Identify the major sources
and sinks of carbon. What
human activities are altering
these sources and sinks for
carbon?
12. What major life processes
are part of the carbon cycle?
13. Identify the major sources
and sinks of phosphorous.
How are humans altering
these sources and sinks?
14. Identify the major sources
and sinks of nitrogen. What
human activities are altering
these sources and sinks?
15. What is nitrogen fixing and
why is it important?
16. What is nitrification and why
is it important?
17. What is denitrification and
why is it important?
18. What is ammonification and
why is it important?
19. Which of the cycles
discussed above is/are
primarily sedimentary?
20. Identify the major reservoirs
for water. What percentage
of water is fresh and, of that
amount, how much is available.
21. Identify and briefly describe
the major processes of the
hydrological cycle. How do
humans alter this cycle?
22. Differentiate between
igneous, metamorphic, and
sedimentary rock types.
23. Explain how through the rock
cycle each class of rock may
become a different class in
the future.
24. Describe plate tectonics.
Explain how it is responsible
for the physical geography of
Earth’s surface.
25. Briefly describe the three
layers of the Earth as
identified by the authors.
26. Identify the three types of
plate boundaries and the
types of structures
associated whit each.
26. Complete the attached
diagrams of each biogeochemical
cycle.
**Label each process,
contributing factor (biotic or
abiotic) and result!