vocabulary
Terms : Hide Images
| 11755372308 | Amensalism | a form of symbiosis in which one species is harmed or impeded and the other is unaffected. | 0 | |
| 11755372309 | Annual plants | a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in one year | 1 | |
| 11755372310 | Autotroph | an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules using energy from light or inorganic chemical reactions | 2 | |
| 11755372311 | Biomass | total mass of living matter in a given unit area | 3 | |
| 11755372312 | biosphere | the regions of Earth's surface and atmosphere where living organisms exist | 4 | |
| 11755372313 | Carnivore | any animal that eats meat as the main part of its diet | 5 | |
| 11755372314 | Chapparal | found in coastal areas between 30° and 40° latitude. vegetation is dominated by stands of dense, spiny shrubs with hard or waxy evergreen leaves | 6 | |
| 11755372315 | Chemotrophs | producers that convert the energy found in inorganic chemical compounds into more complex energy without the use of sunlight | 7 | |
| 11755372316 | climax community | relatively stable and undisturbed plant community that has evolved through stages and adapted to its environment | 8 | |
| 11755372317 | Commensalism | form of symbiosis in which one organism benefits from the association but the other organism is unaffected | 9 | |
| 11755372318 | Community | a group of interdependant organisms that inhabit the same region and interact with each other | 10 | |
| 11755372319 | competitive exclusion principle | aka Gause's Law. two species are competing for the same resources, one must migrate to another area, shift its feeding habits or behavior, suffer a decline in population size, or berome extinct | 11 | |
| 11755372320 | Consumer | organism in a food chain that relies on feeding upon other organisms for survival | 12 | |
| 11755372321 | convergent evolution | the development of similar functions and structures in unrelated or distantly related organisms | 13 | |
| 11755372322 | Decomposer | aka saprotroph. Any organism that feeds off decomposing organic material | 14 | |
| 11755372323 | Detrivore | aka detritus feeder or saprophage. Heterotroph that obtains nutrients by consuming detritus | 15 | |
| 11755372324 | detritus | Parts of dead organisms and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms. | 16 | |
| 11755372325 | directional selection | process of natural selection that tends to favor phenotypes at one extreme of the phenotypic range | 17 | |
| 11755372326 | disruptive selection | natural selection within a single population toward two different phenotypes | 18 | |
| 11755372327 | ecological succession | gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax community is established | 19 | |
| 11755372328 | ecosystem services | services provided by ecosystems that benefit humans and are necessary for a healthy planet, such as oxygen production, water purification, pollination, soil formation, and nutrient recycling | 20 | |
| 11755372329 | Ecotone | transition area between two or more different habitats | 21 | |
| 11755372330 | edge effect | the increased richness of plants and animals that occurs in areas where two or more habitat types come together | 22 | |
| 11755372331 | energy pyramid | a representation of the loss of useful energy at each step in a food chain | 23 | |
| 11755372332 | Evolution | the change in inherited traits of. a population of organisms through successive generation | 24 | |
| 11755372333 | habitat | the type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs | 25 | |
| 11755372334 | habitat formation | where natural habitats are broken into small, relatively isolated sections | 26 | |
| 11755372335 | evolutionary relay | the process whereby organisms not closely related, independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches. | 27 | |
| 11755372336 | extinct | no longer in existence | 28 | |
| 11755372337 | food chain | a representation of the eating relationships between species in an ecosystem | 29 | |
| 11755372338 | food web | A community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains | 30 | |
| 11755372339 | gene pool | all of the genetic information contained within a population | 31 | |
| 11755372340 | genetic drift | alteration in gene frequencies that usually occurs in small populations and results from change processes alone | 32 | |
| 11755372341 | Gradualism | the belief that evolution occurs at a steady pace, without the sudden development of new species or biological factors from one generation to the next | 33 | |
| 11755372342 | gross primary productivity | The rate at which producers in an ecosystem capture and store chemical energy as biomass | 34 | |
| 11772790228 | Heterotroph | an organism that requires an external supply of energy in the form of food, as it cannot make its own | 35 | |
| 11772790229 | Hotspot | a region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction. | 36 | |
| 11772790230 | indicator species | a species whose status provides information on the overall health of the ecosystem and other species in that ecosystem | 37 | |
| 11772790231 | indiginous species | a plant or animal species that occurs at a place within its historically known range | 38 | |
| 11772790232 | interspecific species | competition among individuals of different species | 39 | |
| 11772790233 | Intraspecific species | competition among numbers of the same species | 40 | |
| 11772790234 | invasive species | non-native species of plants and animals that outcompete native species in a specific habitat | 41 | |
| 11772790235 | keystone species | species that has a disproportionate effect on its environment relative to its abundance | 42 | |
| 11772790236 | Macroevolution | evolution on a large scale extending over geologic era and resulting in the formation of new taxonomic groups | 43 | |
| 11772790237 | Microevolution | evolution resulting from small specific genetic changes that can lead to a new subspecies | 44 | |
| 11772790238 | Mutalism | only interaction between species that benefits both | 45 | |
| 11772790239 | natural selection | process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for organisms to survive long enough to reproduce, become more common over successive generations of a population | 46 | |
| 11772790240 | net primary productivity | the production of organic compounds from atmospheric or aquatic carbon dioxide, principally through the process of photosynthesis. | 47 | |
| 11772790241 | Niche | An organism's particular role in an ecosystem | 48 | |
| 11772790242 | omnivorous | Feeding on both animals and plants | 49 | |
| 11772790243 | parallel evolution | development of similar characteristics in organisms that are not closely related due to adaptation to similar environments and/or strategies of life | 50 | |
| 11772790244 | paracitism | interaction between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed | 51 | |
| 11772790245 | Perennial plants | plants that grow and produce flowers in successive years from the same roots | 52 | |
| 11772790246 | Photosynthesis | a process that converts C02 into organic compounds using the energy from sunlight | 53 | |
| 11772790247 | pioneer species | species that are the first to colonize a new site or new ecosystem | 54 | |
| 11772790248 | Population | a group of organisms of the same species populating a given area | 55 | |
| 11772790249 | Predation | a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey | 56 | |
| 11772790250 | primary consumer | organism that is found near the bottom of the food pyramid and consumes plant material | 57 | |
| 11772790251 | primary succession | development of biotic communities in a previously uninhabited and barren habitat with little or no soil | 58 | |
| 11772790252 | Producer | an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules using energy from sunlight or inorganic chemical reactions | 59 | |
| 11772790253 | pyramid of biomass | shows the relationship between biomass and trophic level by quantifying the amount of biomass present at each trophic level. | 60 | |
| 11772790254 | punctuated equilibrium | A model that holds that evolutionary process is characterized by long periods with little or no change interspersed with short periods of rapid speciation | 61 | |
| 11772790255 | Saprotropism | feeding by absorbing dead or decaying organic matter | 62 | |
| 11772790256 | secondary consumer | animal that feeds on smaller plant eating animals in a food chain | 63 | |
| 11772790257 | secondary succession | the development of biotic communities in an area where the natural vegetation has been removed or destroyed but where soil is present | 64 | |
| 11772790258 | sink | a place where a large quantity of a resource stays for a long period of time. AKA reservoir | 65 | |
| 11772790259 | Species | group of related organisms having common characteristics and capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring | 66 | |
| 11772790260 | Symbiosis | close and often long term interactions between different biological species | 67 | |
| 11772790261 | Transpiration | the emission of water vapor from the leaves of plants | 68 | |
| 11772790262 | trophic level | particular position occupied by a group of organisms in a food chain | 69 |
