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Stability and Change in Ecosystems Part II

Across
Sustaining biodiversity is essential to _______ and enhancing life on Earth.
At each link in an ecosystem, matter and energy are conserved: some matter reacts to ______ energy for life functions, some matter is stored in newly made structures, and much is discarded.
Ecosystems have carrying ________ that limit the number of organisms and populations they can support.
Extreme ________ in conditions or the size of any population can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resources and habitat availability.
There are generally fewer organisms at higher levels of a food web, and there is a limit to the number of organisms an ecosystem can _______.
Limiting factors affect the ________ of species in any given ecosystem.
The chemical ________ that make up the molecules of organisms pass through food webs and into and out of the atmosphere and soil and are combined and recombined in different ways.
A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its numbers and types of organisms relatively ______ under stable conditions.
Human activity is also having ______ impacts on biodiversity through overpopulation, overexploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, and climate change.
Down
At each link upward in a food web, only a small fraction of the matter consumed at the lower level is transferred upward, to produce growth and release energy in cellular ________ at the higher level.
Limiting factors in ecosystems include the availability of living and nonliving resources, as well as challenges such as ________, competition, and disease.
Competition among _______ is ultimately competition for the matter and energy needed for life.
Organisms would have the capacity to produce populations of great size were it not for the fact that environments and ________ are finite.
If a ______ disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status instead of becoming a very different ecosystem.
Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are important components of the ______ cycle, in which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and geosphere through chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes.
Human activity in the environment— including habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of ______ species, overexploitation, and climate change—can disrupt an ecosystem and threaten the survival of some species.
Photosynthesis provides most of the ______ for life processes.
Plants or _____ form the lowest level of the food web.