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| 10570169193 | Ecology | The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. (The study of connections in nature) |  | 0 |
| 10570169194 | Ecosystem | A community where populations of different species interact with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy. |  | 1 |
| 10570169195 | Population | A group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area. |  | 2 |
| 10570169196 | Species | A group of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, behavior, chemistry, and genetic makeup. |  | 3 |
| 10570169197 | Habitat | An environment that provides an organism or species with the means to live, grow, and reproduce. (Can be as large as the ocean or as small as animal's intestine) |  | 4 |
| 10570169198 | Abiotic factors | Non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. |  | 5 |
| 10570169199 | Biotic factors | The living factors in the environment such as producers, consumers, and decomposers. | | 6 |
| 10570169200 | niche | The place or function of a given organism within its ecosystem |  | 7 |
| 10570169203 | Limiting factors | environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem. ... also competition between individuals of a species |  | 8 |
| 10570169204 | Carrying Capacity | the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation. |  | 9 |
| 10570169205 | Population size | the number of individuals in a population |  | 10 |
| 10570169206 | S & J population curves | S-shaped growth curve, A pattern of growth in a new environment, the population density of an organism increases slowly initially, in a positive acceleration phase; then increases rapidly, approaching an exponential growth rate as in the J-shaped curve; but then declines |  | 11 |
| 10570169207 | Specialists | Species with narrow niches (ex. anteater). Environments with lots of this type have high diversity. |  | 12 |
| 10570169208 | Generalists | Consumers that have a varying diet, not as specialized |  | 13 |
| 10570169209 | K-selected | Small number of offspring, long gestation, care for young |  | 14 |
| 10570169210 | r-selected | High biotic potential, produce a large number of offspring in a short period of time, do not care for young. |  | 15 |
| 10570169211 | Community | the study of the interactions between species in communities on many different scales |  | 16 |
| 10570169225 | Biosphere | All of the Earth's ecosystems, or the global ecosystem where all life in interconnected. |  | 17 |
| 10570169229 | Species diversity | number of different species that are represented in a given community |  | 18 |
| 10602945395 | Evolution | genetic changes in populations over time |  | 19 |
| 10607344893 | Natural Selection | traits that enhance survival and reproduction are passed on to future generations more frequently than traits that do not |  | 20 |
| 10607416049 | adaptation | inherited characteristic that increases an organism's chance of survival and reproduction OR the process where, over time, characteristics (traits) that lead to better reproductive success become more prevalent in the population |  | 21 |
| 10607426429 | Mutations | accidental changes in DNA that may be passed on to the next generation |  | 22 |
| 10607432142 | Directional selection | natural selection that drives a feature in one direction |  | 23 |
| 10607438609 | Stabilizing selection | natural selection that favors intermediate traits preserving the status quo |  | 24 |
| 10607441849 | Disruptive selection | natural selection in which traits diverge in two or more directions |  | 25 |
| 10607446049 | Convergent evolution | unrelated species evolve similar traits because they live in similar environments |  | 26 |
| 10607449099 | Artificial Selection | process of selection conducted under human direction |  | 27 |
| 10607455477 | Biological diversity (biodiversity) | the variety of life across all levels of biological organization |  | 28 |
| 10607459265 | Speciation | produces new types of organisms |  | 29 |
| 10607461294 | Allopatric speciation | species formation due to physical separation of populations |  | 30 |
| 10607465320 | Sympatric speciation | species form from populations that become reproductively isolated within the same area |  | 31 |
| 10607472624 | Phylogenetic trees (cladograms) | diagram that shows evolutionary relationships among species, groups, genes, etc. |  | 32 |
| 10607485572 | Fossil | an imprint in stone of (or made by) a dead organism |  | 33 |
| 10607491361 | Fossil record | the cumulative body of fossils worldwide |  | 34 |
| 10607496021 | Extinction | the disappearance of a species from Earth |  | 35 |
| 10607498353 | Endemic species | a species only exists in a certain, specialized area |  | 36 |
| 10607500741 | Background extinction rate | The average rate at which species naturally become extinct over the long term |  | 37 |
| 10607503689 | Mass extinction events | massive numbers (50-95%) of species becoming extinct at once |  | 38 |
| 10607509894 | Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) event | 65 million years ago dinosaurs went extinct probably due to change in climate resulting from asteroid impact |  | 39 |
| 10607517084 | sixth mass extinction | current mass extinction caused primarily by habitat loss due to human actions |  | 40 |
| 10613881334 | population density | Number of individuals per unit area | | 41 |
| 10613884855 | Population distribution | a description of how individuals are distributed with respect to one another |  | 42 |
| 10613890470 | Random distribution | distribution in which the location of members in a population is totally random, location of each individual is determined by chance |  | 43 |
| 10613946465 | Uniform distribution | individuals are evenly spaced due to territoriality or competition |  | 44 |
| 10613953486 | Clumped distribution | the most common type of population distribution where many members of the population live close together arranged according to availability of resources |  | 45 |
| 10613961005 | Sex ratio | the ratio of males to females in a population | 46 | |
| 10613963997 | Age distribution (structure) | the relative numbers of organisms of each age in a population |  | 47 |
| 10613972976 | Age structure diagrams (pyramids) | show the age structure of populations |  | 48 |
| 10613982973 | Survivorship curves | the likelihood of death varies with age, Type I, Type II, Type III |  | 49 |
| 10614000098 | Natality | the ratio of live births in an area to the population of that area |  | 50 |
| 10614006783 | Mortality | deaths within the population |  | 51 |
| 10614013147 | Immigration | Movement of individuals into a population |  | 52 |
| 10614015082 | Emigration | movement of individuals out of a population |  | 53 |
| 10614019965 | Crude birth (death) rates | total number of births or deaths per 1,000 people in a population |  | 54 |
| 10614024683 | Natural rate of population growth | crude birth rate - crude death rate |  | 55 |
| 10614028240 | Population growth rate | (Crude birth rate + immigration rate) - (Crude death rate + emigration rate); Net changes in a population's size/1000/year |  | 56 |
| 10614042330 | Exponential growth | A population increases by a fixed percent Graphed as a J-shaped curve |  | 57 |
| 10614048848 | Limiting factors | physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the environment that restrain population growth |  | 58 |
| 10614055605 | Carrying capacity | the largest population that an environment can support at any given time |  | 59 |
| 10614063415 | logistic growth curve | a plot that shows how the initial exponential growth of a population is slowed and finally brought to a standstill by limiting factors; S-shaped curve |  | 60 |
| 10614072062 | Density-dependent factor | limiting factor that depends on population size; | | 61 |
| 10614078663 | Density-independent factor | limiting factors whose influence is not affected by population density; events such as floods, fires, and landslides |  | 62 |
| 10614096060 | Biotic potential | an organism's capacity to produce offspring |  | 63 |
| 10614115358 | Ecotourism | A form of tourism that supports the conservation and sustainable development of ecologically unique areas |  | 64 |
