AP Environmental Science
Mod 6-energy movement
many ecosystems->biosphere (life)
photosynthesis: CO2 + H2O + energy -> sugar + O2
Respiration: reverse
Sugar + O2 -> H2O +CO2 +energy/heat
Electron phosphorylation chain, AMP->ADP->ATP
Stored in phosphate bonds (mono, di, tri)
See also anaerobic respiration: less efficient, smelly bacteria, wounds
Lowest level in trophic pyramid: autotrophs (primary producers)=plants
sun->energy (sugar)
Next level: herbivores (primary consumers) =deer
Secondary consumer: wolf, eats deer
Tertiary: man, bear, aliens from another planet
See also detritivores (decomposers) and scavengers (dead stuff)
Trophic effficiency: 10% so 100 J of energy goes in, 10 goes to next level
Energy used to breathe, walk around, reproduce, watch animal planet…
Food chain: increasing levels of consumers
Food web: the whole interconnected mess
GPP=total solar energy into the system
NPP=GPP-energy used for respiration
Biomass=total mass of living stuff
Mod 7-Matter movement
Big word: Bio Geo Chemical System (BGCS?)
All matter moving around in a system (except zombies)
Water cycle (as opposed to motor cycle)—————
Most important of them all
Evaporation: heat energy, liquid to gas phase
(n.b. sublimation is solid to gas, or ax murderer becoming a butcher)
Plants do something called transpiration, which is water vapor from their leaves
EtO is evapotranspiration, = both combined
You need to know this if you want to grow stuff: sunlight, wind increase EtO
Runoff is just what it sounds like…
Carbon cycle (not carbon bi-cycle)—————————
Gas phase: CO2 (exhale)
Liquid phase: H2CO3 (carbonic acid)
Solid phase: CaCO3 (marble)
Combustion is any combination of O2 and C (any rate)
e.g. gasoline: Octane (8 carbons) + O2 ->CO2, H2O and energy
technically respiration is combustion, only slower…
Macronutrients (for BIG plants)—————
NPK (fertilizer ones) Ca, Mg (dolomite), S (smelly rotten eggs, coal, oil)
Nitrogen cycle (makes grass green, good for plants)——————
MOST confusing of them all
Makes little sense in any language
N2 is atmospheric Nitrogen
Lightning can heat it to mix with O2 or H2 to make NO3 (nitrate) or NH3 (ammonia). This is abiotic nitrogen fixation, very rare, but you smell it after lighting storms…
This is one theory of how life started on earth-lightning making NH3 compounds and then (*zap*) life…
All Nitrogen compounds are called amines, but they all have other names (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, ammonium, confusium, etc.)
Biotic involves bacteria usually, often in the roots of legumes or other plants (beans, etc.)
NH3+ can move to NH4+ where water is around (needs the extra H)
Nitrifying bacteria do this: NH4+ ->NO2- ->NO3- ——>living stuff
Pay no attention to the charges, they make little sense unless you are a chemist…
De-nitrifying bacteria do the reverse: NO3—>NO2—>NO->N2 (gas)
Cool
Phosphorous cycle (no gas phase, just rocks and bones, rocks and bones)——
Ok, there is another form, but it is liquid.
H3PO4 is in coca cola (phosphoric acid)
Phosphate is all over the planet in rocks. It dissolves. Things eat it to make bones and teeth. When they die (or birds poop it out) you have phosphate.
Good fertilizer, needed for roots and fruits.
Hawaiians knew all about this, which is why where we sit was once a very productive farmland.
IN ANIMALS: AMP->ADP->ATP phosphate bonds store energy
Gross thing: farmers dug up the bones of dead people after the battle of Waterloo to fertilize their crops. Shrek did the same thing…
Algal bloom-this is important:
Too much P in a stream, pond or waterway causes a bloom of algae.
Yay algae.
Then they all die.
Boo algae.
Then they sink to the bottom of the pond or whatever.
Then they decay, using up all of the oxygen in the water.
Kills everything.
Biggest one is off the coast of New Orleans (why?)
Another one: Chesapeake Bay (south of DC)
Sulfur (also used to make gunpowder)————
STINKY-rotten eggs smell is protein in the eggs breaking down
Why? Methionine, that’s why (look it up, I’m not kidding)
Basic building block in many amino acids (like methionine)
Dead stuff becomes oil and coal, when we burn that up, the S comes out making SO2, which combines with water in the air to make…
Sulfuric acid (H2SO4)
Acid rain.
Worst acid rain was in Germany (pH 2) and in West Virginia (stronger than stomach acid).
There used to be a forest in the Schwartzwald (black forest) that died completely from this.
Nasty!
Comments