GEOL 1425 1st Edition Lecture 12Outline of Last LectureI. Geologic timeII. Dating the earthOutline of Current Lecture I. EcosystemII. Consumers/producersIII. metabolismCurrent Lecture- Life is everywhere on earth- Biosphere is part of the earth that contains all of its living organisms. Includes plants/animals/microorganisms.- Ecosystems: interactions of biological communities with their environments define organizational units. - Organisms are divided based on the way they intake their food.- Invasive organism can take over an environment to which they are introduced. Examples include Kudzu, purple loostrife, and zebra mussels. - Producers are autotrophs; make their own food from energy from sunlight or chemicals in their environment.- Heterotrophs are consumers; they get their food by feeding directly or indirectly on producers. - Our foods are made up of mostly the same materials: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur. - Nutrients are chemical elements or compounds that include the elements phosphorus,nitrogen, or potassium. Mostly found in garden fertilizer.- All life requires water to survive- Metabolism encompasses all the processes organisms use to convert inputs to outputs.- Photosynthesis: metabolic process where organisms such as plants and algae use energy from the sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates.These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- Respiration: a key metabolic process where oxygen is burned- Biogeochemical cycle is a pathway of biological and environmental components of an ecosystem - Microorganism: single celled organisms, includes bacteria Achaea, fungi, algae, protists- Genes are large molecules within the cells of every organism that encode all of the information’s that determines what the organism will look like, how it will live and reproduce, and how it differs from all other