Combined ScienceCode 5129
Nutrient cycles and energy flow
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- Understand that most biological systems get their energy input mainly from the Sun
- account for why the majority of living things rely wholly on photosynthesis
- Describe the way energy flows along food chains, including the energy that comes from light, the energy in living organisms, and how it is eventually transferred to the environment
- account for why eating crop plants directly is the more efficient use of energy for people, compared with eating livestock reared on those same crops
- Understand that, as the human population grows, demand for resources across the world is rising
- Describe the carbon cycle, limited to: feeding, respiration, photosynthesis, combustion, the formation of fossil fuels, and decomposition together with the role of decomposers