- Carbon uptake by plants (the harvesting of light energy into chemical bond energy)
$CO_2 + H_{2}0 = CH_{2}0 + 0_2$ - a high energy compound, organic matter,
$CH_{2}0$ is short for carbohydrate and includes glucose - primary production
- Carbon fixation
- the base of the food web
- Sunlight to power it
- nutrients to provide complete building blocks of life
- nitrogren (forms are nitrate and ammonia)
- P (phosphorus, in the form of
${PO_{4}}^3$ )- used for ATP, energy transfer
- others in the form of Silicon, iron, pottasium
- Nutrient Recycling also called emineralization is the process of releasing the nitrate and ammonium as well as phosphate back into the environment
- Fixation: going from a gas to a particulate solid form
- generates biomass
- Heterotrophic respiration: microbial respiration, demoposition, animal respiration
- Autotrophic respiration: has the same equation
- Autotroph: self feeding,uses energy from the sun to fix carbon. Primary producers
- Heterotroph: eats others. obtains energy from eating plants (herbivore, seocondary producers) or animals that have eaten plants, carnivore, teriary producer
- 10% energy transfer 90% loss (generalization)
- in the dark respiration gives off
$CO_{2}$ from the earths surface back to the atmosphere. This is also a FLUX - for aquatic: respiration and photsynthesis work the same ways in both systems.
- biomass = standing stock of living matter
- production: new growth of living matter
- if production = death than biomass is at a steady state
- steady state inputs = outputs. No change in amount.
- Biomass has units of mass per area : mass / area
- production has units of mass per area per time : Mass / (area * time)
- if input = output - resevoir is at steady state
- residence time is amount of biomass (mass / area) / input
- mass / (area * time) = units of time
- residence time is also called turnover time
- represents transfer of carbon to living pool to dead carbon pool, solid organic matter
- can take place from learf fall (litter) to the soil surface or from root sloughing and dissolved organic matter production below ground
- dead carbon pool is decomposed by "decomposers". Heterotrophic micobes (bacteria) and heterotropic organisms like earth worms
- carbon is respired back to
$CO_{2}$ and$H_{2}O$ - depicts aerobic respiration but anaerobic repiration takes place also. Anaerobic respiration does not use oxygen
- are pathways for transformation and transport of matter within four areas that comprise the earth
- biosphere (living things): the living earth
- lithosphere (crust): soils, the solid or molten earth
- hydrosphere (ocean): liquid earth (cryo is the frozen)
- atmosphere (least dense, less mass, easy to change): gasous earth