(MAE) Matter and Energy Module Overview

Matter and Energy Module Overview

In this module, we will investigate how energy and nutrients cycle through an ecosystem. Always beginning with the sun, energy is used, converted, and stored by organisms as you move up the food chain. We will take an intense look at how more than one food chain can interact to make a food web. Organisms can also interact with one another. The interactions can be beneficial, harmful, or have no effect on either organism.

 

Essential Questions

  1. How can I write the chemical equation for photosynthesis?
  2. How can I write the chemical equation for cellular respiration?
  3. How can I briefly describe the seven main processes involved in the hydrologic cycle?
  4. How can I describe the two major human interventions in the carbon cycle?
  5. Why is the nitrogen cycle significant?

 

Key Terms

  1. Consumer - organism that obtains food from something other than the sun
  2. Food chain - a simple model that scientists use to show how matter and energy move through an ecosystem; arrows in a food chain move in the direction of energy flow.
  3. Food web - a model showing all possible feeding relationships in a community.
  4. Food pyramid - shows the flow of energy, biomass or numbers at each level in an ecosystem; the highest level is the top of the food chain.
  5. Photosynthesis - The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source.
  6. Glycolysis - The metabolic breakdown of glucose and other sugars that releases energy in the form of ATP.
  7. Fermentation - The anaerobic conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol by yeast.
  8. Aerobe - An organism requiring oxygen to live.
  9. Anaerobe - An organism that can live in the absence of atmospheric oxygen.
  10. Phosphorylation - The esterification of compounds with phosphoric acid.
  11. DE phosphorylation - Hydrolytic removal of a phosphate group from an organic molecule.
  12. Substrate - The material or substance on which an enzyme acts.
  13. Electron transport chain - A series of biochemical reactions by which free energy contained within hydrogen (derived from the Krebs cycle) is released so that it can be used to synthesize ATP during aerobic metabolism.
  14. ATP synthase - An enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of phosphate and adenosine diphosphate into adenosine triphosphate during oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria and bacteria or phosphorylation in chloroplasts.
  15. Nutrient - A source of nourishment, especially a nourishing ingredient in a food.
  16. Nutrient cycle - The uptake, use, release, and storage of nutrients by plants and their environments.
  17. Organic matter - Plant and animal residues such as leaves, trimmings, and manure in various stages of decomposition.
  18. Chemical energy - Energy of a chemical compound which, by the law of conservation of energy, must undergo a change equal and opposite to the change of heat energy in a reaction.
  19. Chlorophyll - Any of a group of green pigments that are found in the chloroplasts of plants and in other photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria.
  20. Chloroplast - A chlorophyll-containing plastid found in algae and green plant cells.
  21. Glucose - A monosaccharide sugar, C6H12O6, occurring widely in most plant and animal tissue.
  22. Light energy - The radiant energy of electromagnetic waves in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  23. Producers - A photosynthetic green plant or chemosynthetic bacterium, constituting the first trophic level in a food chain; an autotrophic organism.
  24. Decomposer - An organism, often a bacterium or fungus that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, thus making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem.
  25. Decomposition - Breakdown or decay of organic materials.            
  26. Stomata - One of the minute pores in the epidermis of a leaf or stem through which gases and water vapor pass.
  27. Sugar - Carbohydrates that can supply energy to living things.
  28. Krebs Cycle - A series of enzymatic reactions in aerobic organisms involving oxidative metabolism of acetyl units and producing high-energy phosphate compounds, which serve as the main source of cellular energy.
  29. Matter - Something that occupies space and can be perceived by one or more senses; a physical body, a physical substance, or the universe as a whole.
  30. Molecules - The smallest particle of a substance that retains the chemical and physical properties of the substance and is composed of two or more atoms; a group of like or different atoms held together by chemical forces.

 

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