Energy and Substances in Food Chains

Important notes to know:

• Producer converts light energy into chemical energy this takes the form of organic molecules. 
• The organic molecules can be carbohydrates, proteins or lipids. 
• These molecules are carbon to hydrogen, carbon to oxygen, carbon to carbon, oxygen to hydrogen and carbon to nitrogen. 
• The carbon, oxygen hydrogen and nitrogen is matter/substance.
• The substances contain energy which was fixed from sunlight. This now in the form of chemical energy.

Food Webs

Important notes to know:

• The food web allows us to provide a better description of the ecosystem. 
• The food web describes feeding. 
• A advantage of using a food web is that it can show organisms feeding at different trophic levels.
• In a food web organisms can have multiple predators and prey. 
• This results in food chains being linked.

Food Chains

Important notes to know:

• A food chain links the producer to the primary consumer, to the secondary consumer and possibly on to the tertiary consumer. 
• You have one organism per trophic level.
• In a food chain you cannot have omnivores (organism that consumes both animals and plants). 
• Food chains show the flow of matter and the flow of energy. 

Trophic Levels

Important notes to know:

• Trophic means to feed. 
• Herbivore eats plants .
• Carnivore eats other animals.
• Plants are producers because they make their own food.
• A carnivore that consumes another carnivore is called the top carnivore.
• Decomposer breaks dead animals and plants into molecules called nitrates and phosphates  

Quadrates

Important notes to know: 

• Quadrant is a square than can be made out of wood, string metal or cardboard. 
• Quadrant is used to measure the population size of species in an ecosystem.
• Quadrants can be 0.5m by 0.5m up to 1m by 1m.
• You would count the number of organisms in the quadrant. you would do this several times until you would have an estimate of how many species of organisms are in the area.
• Quadrants is a method of sampling in different locations so that populations can be compared.

Ecosystems

Important Notes to know:

• A Ecosystem is  a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
• Habitat can be described using the following words: temperature, rainfall, humidity, slope and daylight. 
• A Habitat is non-biological.
• The community of organisms in an ecosystem is made of a population of different species.

Plant Fertilization

Important Notes to Know: 

• Germinated pollen descends down the pollen tube into the ovule.
• Pollen nucleus will fertilize the ovule which leads to the formation of a zygote.
• The zygote will grow into the embryonic plant.
• Outside the ovule the seed coat will start to grow.
• Cotyledons are the food storage for the seedlings. 
• The walls of the ovaries start to thicken. Sugar and proteins are stored in this thick wall.
• This forms the fruit which is developed from the wall of the ovary/carpel.

*I tried to embed a video but it wouldn't work. 

Wind pollonation

Important Things to Know

• The wind blows it, this spreads the seeds of the plants.
• Wherever the seeds land is where they will grow. Unfortunate seeds might land near a tall tree and will not receive enough sunlight to grow.
• The seed that are attached to the plant is attached weakly so it can easily break off when the wind hits it.
• These types of plants are not usually attractive or brightly colored.

Insect Pollination

Important Things to Know

• Insect pollination when a plant is fertilized through a insect. 
• The plant attracts insects to land on the flower by a scent.
• The insect lands on the flower to drink the nectar in side the flower.
• While the Insect is drinking the nectar the pollon is stuck to the insect .
• The insect then goes arround to other plants the pollon is then dropped into the plants stigma, this fertilizes the plant.

Phototropism

Important Notes to Know:

• The word photo in phototropism revers to light and tropism as in  growth response, so phototropism means light growth response. 
• positive phototropism means growth towards the light.
• wherever the light hits on the plant the compound called auxin moves in the opposite direction. 
• Auxin is a plant hormone.  
• Auxin causes plant growth this causes plants to bend towards light. 

Geotropism

Important Notes to Know:

• Geo in the word geotropic revers to gravity and tropic as in growth response so geotropic means gravitational growth response. 
• Roots growing down a seed is called positive geotropism.
• Embryonic shoot of a plant growing up towards the soil is called negative geotropism.
• If the germinating seed is rotated the roots will still grow downwards because of geotropism. 
• If the germinating seed is rotated the Embryonic shoot will grow upwards because of geotropism.  

Plants and Stimuli

Important Notes to Know

• Stimuli are changes in the environment 
• Receptors detect stimuli and turn them into a response
• The responses often take the form of growth.
• The growth response is called a tropism
• the connection between the receptor and the response usually takes the form of plant hormones called plant growth regulators such as Auxin. 

Transpiration

Important Notes to Know

• Transpiration is the evaporation of water from the surface of a plant.
• The equation for transpiration is H20+Sunlight----> Gas
• Phase change from liquid to gas occurs in the space just above the stomatal pore
• Diffusion of water vapor happens through the stomatal pore.
• Sunlight warms the leaf in order of evaporation to occur.
• Sunlight is absorbed by the leaf which emits heat and that causes the phase change to water vapor.

How to use a Potometer

Image From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potometer#use

How to Setup 

1. Cut a leafy shoot from a plant and plunge its base into water. This prevents the xylem from taking up any air. Wetting the leaves themselves will alter the rate of transpiration.
2. put the whole of the potometer into the sink. Move it about until all the air bubbles come out.
3. cut the shoot's stem underwater. Put it into the bung.
4. Make sure the tap is closed, then lift the whole apparatus out of the water.
5. Leave the end of the capillary tube out of the water until an air bubble forms then put the end into a beaker of water.

How to use 

1. Set up the conditions of the experiment. changes to lighting (placing the plant in bright light or shadow), wind (directing a fan at the plant), and humidity (placing the plant in a humid chamber) are normal.
2. Let the bubble reach a "zero" point in the tube. 
3. Measure the movement of the bubble at regular intervals and record the results in excel or on paper.

Structure of a Root

Image from: media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/05/5605-004-CFE4B012.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/138864/382/Cross-section-of-a-typical-root-showing-the-primary-xylem&h=320&w=458&sz=37&tbnid=D1sEhcmQ7jYteM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstructure%2Bof%2Ba%2Broot&zoom=1&q=structure+of+a+root&hl=en&usg=__FlX1J74XewoVXldlQ9RMilmOTzs%3D&sa=X&ei=LyJ8Ta7IJfOD0QGY-fzLAw&ved=0CB4Q9QEwAw

The Uptake of Water

Important Notes to Know:

• The roots branching pattern is to increase the surface area to increase water intake.
• The roots will branch out to find a water source. 
• The root hairs on the roots are epidermal cells where the cell wall has been extended. 
• Root hairs increase the surface area for the absorption of water. 
• Plant concentrates minerals in the root hairs so the plant can take up water. 
• Water is taken in by the roots by using osmosis. 
• In osmosis the water moves from a dilute region to a highly concentrated region.