Terms : Hide Images
| 10376103554 | Population | a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring |  | 0 |
| 10376103555 | Community | all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction |  | 1 |
| 10376103556 | Ecosystem | all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact |  | 2 |
| 10376103557 | Biotic | pertaining to the living organisms in the environment |  | 3 |
| 10376103558 | Abiotic | nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment |  | 4 |
| 10376103559 | Biosphere | the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems |  | 5 |
| 10376103560 | Niche | the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment |  | 6 |
| 10376103561 | Clumped Distribution | individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant |  | 7 |
| 10376103562 | Uniform Distribution | evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors |  | 8 |
| 10376103563 | Random Distribution | unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area |  | 9 |
| 10376103564 | Population Ecology | the study of populations in relation to their environment, including environmental influences on populations, on population density and distribution, age structure, and variations in population size |  | 10 |
| 10376103565 | Birth Rate | rate of annual birth within a population |  | 11 |
| 10376103566 | Death Rate | rate of annual death within a population |  | 12 |
| 10376103567 | Sex Ratio | ratio of females to males within a population |  | 13 |
| 10376103569 | Immigration Rate | the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas |  | 14 |
| 10376103570 | Emigration Rate | the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population |  | 15 |
| 10376103571 | Carrying Capacity | the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K) |  | 16 |
| 10376103573 | Exponential Growth | growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, (represented by a J-Shaped curve when population size is plotted over time) |  | 17 |
| 10376103574 | Logistical Growth | population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity |  | 18 |
| 10376103575 | K-Selected | stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care |  | 19 |
| 10376103576 | R-Selected | reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care |  | 20 |
| 10376103577 | Survivorship Curve | the plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age |  | 21 |
| 10376103578 | Type I Survivorship Curve | low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans) | | 22 |
| 10376103579 | Type II Surviorship Curve | constant death rate over the organism's life span | | 23 |
| 10376103580 | Type III Surviorship Curve | very high death rates for the young and then declines for those few individuals that survive the early period (insects) | | 24 |
| 10376103581 | Symbiosis | an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact |  | 25 |
| 10376103582 | Commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed |  | 26 |
| 10376103583 | Mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit |  | 27 |
| 10376103584 | Parasitism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of another (the host) by living either within or on its host |  | 28 |
| 10376103585 | Intraspecific Competition | interactions between the same species competing for resources |  | 29 |
| 10376103586 | Interspecific Competition | competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply |  | 30 |
| 10376103587 | Predation | an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey) |  | 31 |
| 10376103588 | Aposematic Coloration | the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators |  | 32 |
| 10376103589 | Batesian Mimicry | a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators |  | 33 |
| 10376103590 | Cryptic Coloration | camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background |  | 34 |
| 10376103591 | Mullerian Mimicry | a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species |  | 35 |
| 10376103592 | Pioneer Species | the first species to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady-state ecosystem |  | 36 |
| 10376103593 | Climax Community | in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate |  | 37 |
| 10376103594 | Succession | the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time |  | 38 |
| 10376103595 | Primary Succession | a type of ecological succession that occurs in an area where there were originally no organisms present and where soil has not yet formed |  | 39 |
| 10376103596 | Secondary Succession | a type of succession that occurs where an existing community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil or substance intact |  | 40 |
| 10376103597 | Photoautotrophs | an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2) |  | 41 |
| 10376103598 | Chemoautotrophs | an organism that needs only CO2 as a carbon source but obtains energy by oxidizing inorganic substances |  | 42 |
| 10376103599 | Herbivore | an animal that eats mainly plants or algae |  | 43 |
| 10376103600 | Carnivore | an animal that mainly eats other animals |  | 44 |
| 10376103601 | Detritivore | a consumer that derives its energy and nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organism (a decomposer) |  | 45 |
| 10376103602 | Food Chain | the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers |  | 46 |
| 10376103603 | Food Web | the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem |  | 47 |
| 10376103604 | Trophic Levels | the positions organisms occupy in a food chain |  | 48 |
| 10376103605 | Secondary Consumer | a carnivore that eats herbivores |  | 49 |
| 10376103606 | Primary Consumer | a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs | | 50 |
| 10376103607 | Biogeochemical Cycles | any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems |  | 51 |
| 10376103608 | Carbon Cycle | forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient |  | 52 |
| 10376103609 | Phosphorus Cycle | cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation |  | 53 |
| 10376103610 | Nitrogen Cycle | this nutrient is converted to compounds that can be assimilated by plants then returned in gas form to the atmosphere; all processes rely on bacteria |  | 54 |
| 10376103611 | Nitrogen Fixation | the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia |  | 55 |
| 10376103612 | Denitrification | process where bacteria use nitrates in their metabolism instead of oxygen releasing nitrogen gas then into the atmosphere |  | 56 |
| 10376103613 | Water Cycle | this nutrient cycle involves evaporation from the earth & transpiration from plants and falls then by precipitation back down to the earth to begin the cycle again |  | 57 |
| 10376103614 | Age Structure Diagrams | a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population |  | 58 |
| 10376103615 | Competitive Exclusion Principle | the concept that when populations of two similar species compete for the same limited resources, one population will use the resources more efficiently and have a reproductive advantage that will eventually lead to the elimination of the other population |  | 59 |
| 10376103616 | Resource Partitioning | the division of environmental resources by coexisting species such that the niche of each species differs by one or more significant factors from the niches of all the coexisting species |  | 60 |
| 10376103617 | Zero Population Growth (ZPG) | a period of stability in population size, when the per capita birth rate and death rate are equal |  | 61 |
| 10376103620 | Keystone Species | a species that is not necessarily abundant in a community yet experts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche |  | 62 |
| 10376103621 | Bottom-up Model | a model of community organization in which mineral nutrients influence community organization by controlling plant or phytoplankton numbers, which in turn control herbivores, which in turn control predator numbers |  | 63 |
| 10376103622 | Top-down Model | a model of community organization in which predation influences community organization by controlling herbivore numbers, which in turn control plant or phytoplankton numbers, which in turn control nutrient levels; also called the trophic cascade model |  | 64 |
| 10376103623 | Biological Magnification | a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain |  | 65 |
| 10376103624 | Decomposers | organisms that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, the wastes of living organisms and converts them into inorganic forms; a detritivore |  | 66 |
| 10376103625 | Eutrophication | a process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae or cyanobacteria |  | 67 |
| 10376103628 | Invasive Species | a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range |  | 68 |
| 10376103629 | Altruism | behavior that increases fitness of another individual but decreases their own fitness |  | 69 |
| 10376103630 | Kin selection | enhancing the reproductive success of one's relatives |  | 70 |
| 10376103639 | Density dependent factor | factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc) |  | 71 |
| 10376103640 | Density independent factor | factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc) |  | 72 |
| 10376103641 | Species diversity | variety of organisms in a community |  | 73 |
| 10376103642 | Species richness | the number of different species in a community |  | 74 |
| 10376103643 | Relative abundance | evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community |  | 75 |
