Nutrients
1.You would expect decomposition and mineralization to occur most rapidly under
2.Decomposition by bacteria and fungi relies on the activity of __________________.
3.In the detrital food chain __________________ may both feed on bacteria and fungi as well as fragment organic
particles.
4.All heterotrophs are involved in some aspect of decomposition but not all may be involved in
______________________.
5.All carbon in living things can be traced to
6.The two forms of nitrogen available to plants are
7.Eutrophication
8.In a gaseous biogeochemical cycle such as the carbon cycle the major pool of nutrients available to living things are in
the atmosphere and
9.An example of a nutrient involved in a sedimentary biogeochemical cycle is
10.Carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide as the result of the process of
11.Which of these is most closely linked to energy in an ecosystem
12.Biological nitrogen fixation is accomplished chiefly by
13.Which of these nutrients is released in elemental form during photosynthesis?
14.What happens in the soil microbial loop?
15.The type of plant compound slowest to degrade is ________________
16.The process of breakdown of chemical bonds that were formed during the construction of plant and animal tissues is
called ______________
17.the primary decomposers involved in conversion of nutrients from organic to inorganic forms are
_______________________
18.The process which occurs in plants involving absorption of a portion of nutrients from decaying tissues such as
leaves is ___________
19.The rate of nutrient cycling in an ecosystem depends on the rates of two key processes: primary productivity and
__________
20.A compound abundant in plant cell walls readily attacked by microbial decomposers is ___________________
21.The conversion of inorganic nutrients into an organic form occurs in a process involving __________________