AP Biology-- Ecology Unit Flashcards
AP Biology, Ecology Unit 8 from Campbell and Reece Biology, eight ed. Chapters 52-56
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| 202841323 | Ecology | study of the integrations between organisms and the environment in which they live in; can range from individual (organismal) to global | 0 | |
| 202841324 | Organismal ecology | has to do with how an organism's structure, physiology, and behavior interact with its environment; includes physiological, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology | 1 | |
| 202841325 | Population | group of individuals of the same species living in an area; ex: painted turtles living in a pond | 2 | |
| 202841326 | Population ecology | studies the factors that affect population size and how and why a population might change over time | 3 | |
| 202841327 | Community | a group of populations of all different species living in an area; ex: the whole pond ecosystem of organisms | 4 | |
| 202841328 | Community ecology | studies the interactions between species; including predation, competition, commensalism, symbiotic, etc; and how it affects a community's structure, organization, relationship | 5 | |
| 202841329 | Ecosystem | community of organisms in an area and the physical factors that they interact with; ex: the pond the organism live in | 6 | |
| 202841330 | Ecosystem ecology | studies the energy flow and chemical cycling between organisms and their environment (aka study of ecosystem and organism's interaction) | 7 | |
| 202841331 | Landscape (or Seascape) | mosaic of connected ecosystems (might span great distance, a bunch of biomes) | 8 | |
| 202841332 | Landscape ecology | studies the factors controlling the interactions and exchanges of energy, materials, and organism across multiple ecosystems; ex: between the pond at the edge of the forest and the forest itself | 9 | |
| 202841333 | Biosphere | the global ecosystem, sum and collection of all the Earth's ecosystems | 10 | |
| 202841334 | Global ecology | studies how the exchange of materials and energy affect the functioning and distribution of organisms across the biosphere (aka looking for global patterns, relationships, patterns) | 11 | |
| 202841335 | Biotic | living (relates to: biotic factors: organisms that are part of an individual's environment; ex: certain plants in the pond, carnivore fish/alligators) | 12 | |
| 202841336 | Abiotic | nonliving (relates to: abiotic factors: chemical and physical factors such as temperature, light, water and nutrients that influence the distribution and abundance of organism; ex: water temperature, salinity, oxygen) | 13 | |
| 202841337 | Dispersal | the movement of individuals away from their area of origin or from centers of high population density; ex: turtles moving into the woods from pond, spreading out from original area of inhabitation | 14 | |
| 202841338 | Climate | the long-term prevailing weather conditions in a particular area (compare to: weather: the short term temperatures or conditions) | 15 | |
| 202841339 | Macroclimate | climate patterns on the global, regional, and local level; ex: weather in Maryland | 16 | |
| 202841340 | Microclimate | very fine patterns of climate; ex: conditions that affect community living in pond grasses, under a log | 17 | |
| 202841341 | Tropics | regions that lie between 23.5 N and 23.5 S latitude (cutting horizontally on the Earth); they and the equator get the most direct sunlight, therefore more heat and light per surface area | 18 | |
| 202841342 | March Equinox | alignment of the Earth when the equator faces the sun directly, the poles are not tilted, and all areas on the Earth experience 12/12 sun and darkness | 19 | |
| 202841343 | December solstice | the alignment of the Earth when the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun and has the shortest day/longest night; Southern Hemisphere tilts towards the sun and has the longest day/shortest night | 20 | |
| 202841344 | September Equinox | alignment of the Earth when the equator faces the sun directly, the poles are not tilted, and all areas on the Earth experience 12/12 sun and darkness | 21 | |
| 202841345 | June solstice | the alignment of the Earth when the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun and has the longest day/shortest night; the Southern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun and has shortest day/longest night | 22 | |
| 202841346 | Biomes | major terrestrial or aquatic life zones, characterized by vegetation type in terrestrial or physical environment in aquatic; ex: (see below types, defined) | 23 | |
| 202841347 | Photic zone | area in a body of water where there is sufficient light for photosynthesis (part of: stratification of aquatic biomes) | 24 | |
| 202841348 | Aphotic zone | area in a body of water where little light penetrates (part of: stratification of aquatic biomes) | 25 | |
| 202841349 | Benthic zone | bottom of all aquatic biomes; made up of substrate, sand, inorganic, and organic sediments | 26 | |
| 202841350 | Benthos | organism that occupy the benthic zone; ex: worms | 27 | |
| 202841351 | Detritus | dead organic matter that is a source of food for many benthic species; ex: dead plant matter, decaying organisms | 28 | |
| 202841352 | Abyssal zone | the benthic zone that lies between 2,000 and 6,000 m below the surface in an ocean; ex: Mariana trench | 29 | |
| 202841353 | Thermocline | a narrow layer of abrupt temperature changed in the ocean and most lakes; ex: from surface to colder, deeper waters | 30 | |
| 202841354 | Turnover | bodies of water that undergo a semiannual mixing of their waters as a result changing temperatures; it brings oxygenated water from a lake's surface to the bottom and nutrient rich water from the bottom to the surface in both spring and autumn; related to: important for survival and growth of organisms at all levels in aquatic ecosystem | 31 | |
| 202841355 | Oligotrophic lakes | nutrient-poor and oxygen rich lakes, low amounts of decomposable organic sediments; ex: lake in Grand Tetons, very clear water | 32 | |
| 202841356 | Eutrophic lakes | nutrient-rich and often depleted of oxygen in the deepest zone in the summer and if covered in ice in the winter, high amounts of decomposable organic bottom sediments; ex: Swan park's lake | 33 | |
| 202841357 | Littoral zone | the shallow, well-lighted waters close to shore, rooted and floating aquatic plants live in this zone | 34 | |
| 202841358 | Limnetic zone | zone farther from shore where the water is too deep to support rooted aquatic plants, inhabited by a variety of phytoplankton and cyanbacteria; more offshore in a lake | 35 | |
| 202841359 | Wetland | a habitat that is flooded with water at least some of the time and supports plants adapted to water-saturated soil; high organic production and decomposition by microbes= periodically low in dissolved oxygen, good at filtering dissolved nutrients and pollutants; basin wetlands (form in shallow basins), riverine wetlands (form along periodically flooded banks of rivers and streams), fringe wetlands (occur at the coasts of large lakes and seas); most productive biomes on Earth, woody plants dominate swamps while sphagnum mosses in bogs; human draining and filling has destroyed 90% of wetlands; ex: Jug Bay | 36 | |
| 202841360 | Estuary | a transition area between river and sea; seawater flows up during rising tide and out with falling tide; salinity varies; networks of tidal channels, islands, natural levees, and mudflats; salt marshes, breeding ground for fishes, birds; worms, oysters, crabs, etc.; pollution is harming, filling, and dredging; ex: Chesapeake Bay | 37 | |
| 202841361 | Intertidal zone | an aquatic biome that is periodically submerged and exposed by the tides (2 times a day); zones experience variations in exposure to air, temperature, and salinity; oxygen and nutrient levels are high; configuration of coastline and substrate influences the magnitude of tide and exposure received; high diversity and biomass of attached marine algae inhabit the rocky intertidal zones, they attach to the hard surfaces; oil pollution disrupts; ex: Oregon tidal pools | 38 | |
| 202841362 | Oceanic pelagic zone | (aka: open water) a vast realm of open water that is constantly mixed by the wind-driven ocean currents; oxygen levels are generally high, turnover renews nutrients; covers 70% of earth's surface; phytoplankton and photosynthetic bacteria drift and account for half of photosynthetic activity on Earth; zooplankton abundant, invertebrates, free swimming animals; overfishing harms and polluted by waste dumping; ex: Atlantic ocean | 39 | |
| 202841363 | Coral reefs | formed from the calcium carbonate skeletons of corals, occur in relatively stable tropical marine environments with high water clarity, very sensitive to temperatures; require high oxygen levels; require solid substrate for attachment (young fringing reef to offshore barrier to island coral atoll); corals are a group of cnidarians, fish diversity high; overfishing, global warming and climate change contribute to bleaching, bottom trawl nets ruin coral reefs, development in mangrove forests reduce the spawning grounds of many tropical fishes; ex: Great Barrier Reef, Australia | 40 | |
| 202841364 | Marine benthic zone | consists of the seafloor below the surface waters of the neritic zone and the offshore pelagic (open water) zone, receive no sunlight, water temperatures decline with depth as pressure increases, oxygen usually present, invertebrates and fishes, giant tube worms at the vents; many of them nourished by chemoautotrophic prokaryotes that live as symbionts within their bodies; overfishing has decimated the benthic fish populations and dumping of organic wastes has created a lack of oxygen in the areas; ex: everywhere on the seafloor, even in deep trenches | 41 | |
| 202841365 | Neritic | coastal zone, comes before the main oceanic zone, shallow | 42 | |
| 202841366 | Abyssal | zone that is very deep, continuously cold and pressurized | 43 | |
| 202841367 | Deep-sea hydrothermal vents | hot, dark environments found on mid-ocean ridges, the food producers are chemoautotrophic prokaryotes that obtain energy by oxidizing hydrogen sulfide by a reaction with hot water and dissolved sulfate | 44 | |
| 202841368 | Disturbance | an event that changes a community, which may remove organisms from an area and alter resource availability; ex: fire, flood, storm, human activity | 45 | |
| 202841369 | Climograph | a plot of the temperature and precipitation in a particular region; (relate to: biomes) | 46 | |
| 202841370 | Ecotone | area of intergradation between different terrestrial biomes; ex: area between a grassland and temperate forest | 47 | |
| 202841371 | Canopy | layer in a forest that makes up the upper layer and includes tall, wide breadth trees; (relate to: layers of a forests—upper canopy, low tree layer, shrub understory, ground layer of herbaceous plants, the forest floor, root layer) | 48 | |
| 202841372 | Tropical rain forest | equatorial and subequatorial regions, rainfall is relatively constant, (compare to: Tropical dry forests: precipitation is highly seasonal with a many month dry season), temperatures are high year round, vertically layered and competition for light is intense—emergent trees, canopy, sub canopy, shrub, herb layers, epiphytes; thorny shrubs and succulents in dry tropical forests; home to millions of species—diversity highest; rapid population growth is leading to agricultural and development of rain forests; ex: Brazil | 49 | |
| 202841373 | Deserts | occur 30 N and 30 S latitude, precipitation is low and highly variable, temperature is variable seasonally and daily, landscapes include scattered vegetation and lots of bare ground; succulents such as cacti and other plants that have adapted to heat and desiccation tolerance, water storage, and reduced leaf surface area (some plants exhibit C4 or CAM photosynthesis); animas have adapted—water conservation, nocturnal; conversion to agriculture and urbanization threatens; ex: southwest USA | 50 | |
| 202841374 | Savanna | equatorial and subequatorial regions, seasonal rainfall and dry season that is eight or nine months, warm year round, scattered trees are thorny with small leaves, fires are common, grasses and forbs make up the ground cover, large plant eating mammals, predators like lions, termites galore, cattle ranching and overhunting threatening animal populations; ex: Africa (Kenya) | 51 | |
| 202841375 | Chaparral | mid-latitude coastal regions on several continents, precipitation is highly seasonal with rainy winters and long dry summers; fall , winter and spring are cool and summer hotter; dominated by shrubs and small trees and grasses, adapted to reduce water lose and to fire; mammals include browsers like deer and other amphibians and birds, insects; highly settled and reduced through conversion to agriculture and urbanization, humans contribute to fires; ex: Californian coast | 52 | |
| 202841376 | Temperate grasslands | located in south Africa, Hungary, Argentina, Uruguay, Russia, and North America; precipitation is highly seasonal with dry winters and wet summers; periodic drought is common; winters are cold and summers are hot; grasses and forbs dominate and can sprout quickly after fire; large grazers like bison and wild horses; also burrowing animals such as prairie dogs; with deep, fertile soil, they have been converted to farmland and in some places ruined by cattle grazing; ex: plains of North America, the Dakotas | 53 | |
| 202841377 | Northern Coniferous forest (aka Taiga) | found across northern North America and Eurasia to the edge of the arctic tundra—largest terrestrial biome on Earth; precipitation ranges from 30 to 70 cm, droughts are common; winters are cold and long while summers may be hot; plants include cone bearing trees (pine, spruce, fir, hemlock); migratory birds nest, year round bird species, moose, brown bears, Siberian tigers, insect outbreaks that kill trees; are being logged and therefore the old growth parts of these forests may disappear soon; ex: Rocky Mountain National park in Colorado | 54 | |
| 202841378 | Temperate broadleaf forest | located in the mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and some in Australia and New Zealand; precipitation ranges from 70 to 200 cm in all seasons including winter snow; winter temperatures are around freezing and summers are hot and humid; distinct vertical layer forest (closed canopy, one or two strata of understory trees, a shrub layer, and an herbaceous stratum), dominant trees are deciduous which drop their leaves before the winter; many mammals hibernate during the winter and birds migrate to warmer areas; heavily settled, logged, cleared for agriculture and urban development; ex: Maryland, up and down the East Coast | 55 | |
| 202841379 | Tundra | found in the areas of the Arctic and even on very high mountaintops at all altitudes where the high winds and low temperatures create an alpine tundra; precipitation around 20 to 60 cm; winters are long and cold while summers are short with low temperatures; mostly herbaceous vegetation with grasses, mosses, forbs, small shrubs and trees, lichens; contains a permanently frozen soil layer called permafrost; large grazing musk, caribou, reindeer, bears, wolves, foxes; birds migrate to the tundra for summer nesting; sparsely settled by can be harmed by oil drilling; ex: Alaska, upper parts of Russia | 56 | |
| 202841380 | Population ecology | the study of populations in relation to their environment; explores how biotic and abiotic factors influence the density, distribution, size, and age structure of populations | 57 | |
| 202841381 | Population | a group of individuals of a single species living in the same general area; they rely on the same resources and are affected by similar environmental factors; they interact and breed with one another as well; ex: a population of turtles living in the pond | 58 | |
| 202841382 | Density | the number of individuals per unit area or volume; ex: number of sloths per acre of trees | 59 | |
| 202841383 | Dispersion | the pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the population; (relates to: patterns of dispersion—clumped, uniform, or random) | 60 | |
| 202841384 | Mark-recapture method | used to help determine density; scientists capture a random sample of individuals in a population, tag and release the first sample; then after waiting for the first sample to mix back in with the population, they capture a second sample and figure out how many individuals were recaptured from the first (x), how many total in the second sampling (n), total in the first sampling (m), and the population size (N) to create this formula: (x/n)= (m/N) or N=((mn)/x) | 61 | |
| 202841385 | Immigration | the influx or arrival of new individuals from other areas; ex: new geese settle at the pond | 62 | |
| 202841386 | Emigration | the movement of individuals out of a population; ex: baby ducks leave the pond and settle somewhere else | 63 | |
| 202841387 | Demography | the study of the vital statistic of populations and how they change over time; (related to: life table) | 64 | |
| 202841388 | Life tables | are age-specific summaries of the survival patterns of a population (females vs. males at different ages, etc) | 65 | |
| 202841389 | Cohort | a group of individuals of the same age (related to: life table (follow a cohort from birth until death for data)) | 66 | |
| 202841390 | Survivorship curve | a plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age; (types: Type I (curve is flat at the start, reflecting low death rates during early and middle life, and then drops steeply as death rates increase among older age groups; ex: humans); Type II (intermediate, with a constant death rate over the organism's life span; ex: squirrels); Type III (the curve drops sharply at the start, reflecting very high death rates for the young, but flattens out as death rates decline for those few individuals that survive the early period of die-off; ex: oysters)) | 67 | |
| 202841391 | Reproductive table | (aka fertility schedule) an age specific summary of the reproductive rates in a population | 68 | |
| 202841392 | Life history | made up of the traits that affect an organism's schedule of reproduction and survival; three variables include when reproduction begins, how often the organism reproduces, and how many offspring are produced during each reproductive episode; are evolutionary outcomes reflected in development, physiology, and behavior | 69 | |
| 202841393 | Big-bang reproduction or semelparity | producing thousands of offspring in a single reproductive opportunity before the organism dies; may be favored in highly variable or unpredictable environments which will increase the probability that some of the offspring will survive with so many produced; ex: salmon | 70 | |
| 202841394 | Repeated reproduction or iteroparity | produce a few large eggs/offspring and then reproduce annually; may be favored in dependable environments where adults are more likely to survive to breed again and where competition for resources may be intense; ex: lizards | 71 | |
| 202841395 | Zero population growth (ZPG) | occurs when the per capita birth and death rates are equal (r=b-d; r=0) | 72 | |
| 202841396 | Exponential population growth | population growth under ideal conditions; aka geometric population growth; rmaxN=(dN)/(dt); results in a J-shaped curve | 73 | |
| 202841397 | Carrying capacity | symbolized as K, is the maximum population size that a particular environment can sustain; energy, shelter, refute from predators, nutrient availability, water, and suitable nesting sites can all be limiting factors | 74 | |
| 202841398 | Logistic population growth | the per capita rate of increase approaches zero as the carrying capacity is reached; (dN)/(dt)=rmaxN((K-N)/K); creates an S-shaped curve | 75 | |
| 202841399 | K-selection or density dependent selection | selection for life history traits that are sensitive to population density; competition strong; ex: elephant that raise a young so that it will have the best chance to survive | 76 | |
| 202841400 | R-selection or density-independent selection | selection for life history traits that maximize reproductive success in un-crowded environments (low density); ex: fish that lay eggs | 77 | |
| 202841401 | Density independent | a birth rate or a death rate that does not change with population density; ex: physical factors like drought that affect grass | 78 | |
| 202841402 | Density dependent | birth or death rates that falls/rises as population density rises; (include: competition for resources, territoriality, disease, predation, toxic wastes, intrinsic factors (physiological)) | 79 | |
| 202841403 | Population dynamics | the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors that cause variations in the size of populations; (relates to: stability, fluctuation, population cycles, immigration, emigration, metapopulations) | 80 | |
| 202841404 | Metapopulation | when a number of local population are linked; ex: immigration and emigration link the lizards in a pond to other populations of the species, all which make up a metapopulation; local populations in a metapopulation can be thought of as occupying discrete patches off suitable habitat in a sea of unsuitable habitats | 81 | |
| 202841405 | Demographic transition | movement toward zero population growth that comes about by a low birth rate minus a low death rate; related to an increase in the quality of health care and sanitation as well as improved access to education, especially for women | 82 | |
| 202841406 | Age structure | the relative number of individuals of each age in the population; usually represented in a pyramid (aka: age pyramids—rapid growth has a lot of young, not much old (Afghanistan); slow growth as fairly equal amount of younger up to 40 (USA) ; no growth has few young kids, more older (Italy))) | 83 | |
| 202841407 | Ecological footprint | summarizes the land and water area required by each person, city or nation to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb all the waste it generates; average is 1.7 ha per person | 84 | |
| 202841408 | Community | a group of populations of different species living close enough to interact; ex: pond community | 85 | |
| 202841409 | Interspecific interactions | an organism's interactions with other individuals of other species in the community; include predation, competition, herbivory, symbiosis, parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism; (refers to: +/- to determine how affects others) | 86 | |
| 202841410 | Interspecific competition | is a -/- interaction that occurs when individuals of different species compete for a resource that limits their growth and survival; ex: phragmites that competes with other grasses | 87 | |
| 202841411 | Competitive exclusion | when one species will use the resource more efficiently and thus reproduce more rapidly than the other reproduces; eventually will lead to the local elimination of the inferior competitor | 88 | |
| 202841412 | Ecological niche | the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment; if an organism's habitat is its address, then the niche is the profession— its ecological role, how it fits into an ecosystem | 89 | |
| 202841413 | Resource partitioning | the differentiation of niches that enable similar species to coexist in a community; ex: one lizard on sunny branches and the other on shady branches; (relates to: realized and fundamental niche) | 90 | |
| 202841414 | Character displacement | the tendency for characteristics to diverge more in sympatric (geographically overlapping) populations of two species than in allopatric (geographically separate) populations of the same two species; ex: Darwin's finches; the ones on the same island together began to differ and change while others of the same species on different islands did not | 91 | |
| 202841415 | Predation | a +/- interaction between species in which one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey; ex: snake eats a frog; caterpillar eats a plant | 92 | |
| 202841416 | Cryptic coloration or camouflage | makes prey difficult to spot; ex: a spotted toad that blends with leaves | 93 | |
| 202841417 | Aposematic coloration | animals with effective chemical defenses often exhibit these bring colors, or warning coloration; ex: poison dart frog | 94 | |
| 202841418 | Batesian mimicry | a palatable or harmless species mimics an unpalatable or harmful model | 95 | |
| 202841419 | Müllerian mimicry | two or more unpalatable species resemble each other | 96 | |
| 202841420 | Herbivory | +/- interaction in which an organism eats parts of a plant or alga; ex: grasshopper eating grass | 97 | |
| 202841421 | Symbiosis | when two or more species live in direct and intimate contact with one another; sometimes harmful or helpful or neutral | 98 | |
| 202841422 | Parasitism | +/- symbiotic interaction in which the parasite derives its nourishment from the host, which is harmed in the process | 99 | |
| 202841423 | Endoparasites | parasites that live within the body of their host; ex: tapeworms | 100 | |
| 202841424 | Ectoparasites | parasites that feed on the external surface of a host; ex: ticks | 101 | |
| 202841425 | Mutualism | +/+ an Interspecific interaction that benefits both species; ex: photosynthesis by unicellular algae in corals, or even nitrogen fixation by bacteria in the root nodules of legumes; (relates to: obligate mutualism in which at least one species has lost the ability to survive without its partner; facultative mutualism: both species can survive alone) | 102 | |
| 202841426 | Commensalism | an interaction between species that neither benefits one of the species but neither harm nor helps the other; +/0; ex: hitchhiking species like algae on turtles' shells or cattle egrets and cows | 103 | |
| 202841427 | Species diversity | the variety of different kinds of organisms that make up the community—has two components, species richness and relative abundance | 104 | |
| 202841428 | Species richness | the number of different species in the community | 105 | |
| 202841429 | Relative abundance | the proportion each species represents of all individuals in the community | 106 | |
| 202841430 | Shannon diversity (H) | H=-[(pAlnpA) + ( pBlnpB) ... etc where A, B, C etc are the species in the community and p is the relative abundance of each species | 107 | |
| 202841431 | Trophic structure | feeding relationships between organisms; feeding level of each organism | 108 | |
| 202841432 | Food chain | the transfer of food energy up the trophic levels starts at its source in plants and other autotrophic organisms (primary produces), herbivores (primary consumers), carnivores (secondary, tertiary, and quaternary consumers), and decomposers | 109 | |
| 202841433 | Food webs | food chains that are linked together; diagrammed with arrows inking species according to who eats whom | 110 | |
| 202841434 | Energetic hypothesis | suggests that the length of a food chain is limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer along the chain; (relates to: only about 10% of energy is transferred to the next level) | 111 | |
| 202841435 | Biomass | the total mass of all individuals in a population; most evidence supports this hypothesis | 112 | |
| 202841436 | Dynamic stability hypothesis | proposes that long food chains are less stable than short chains | 113 | |
| 202841437 | Dominant species | species in a community that are the most abundant or that collectively have the highest biomass, exert a powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species | 114 | |
| 202841438 | Invasive species | organisms that take hold outside their native range, typically introduced by humans | 115 | |
| 202841439 | Keystone species | might not necessarily be abundant in a community by exert a strong control on community structure by their pivotal ecological roles, or niches; ex: otters, sea urchins, seaweed | 116 | |
| 202841440 | Facilitators | species that have positive effects on the survival and reproduction of other species in the community; ex: special grasses in a marsh make it better for other grasses | 117 | |
| 202841441 | Bottom up model | the VH linkage (V=vegetation; H= herbivores) proposes a uni-directional influence from lower to higher trophic levels; ex: nutrients control plants number and therefore controls H numbers so if you add nutrients, higher trophic levels should also increase in biomass; but if you add predators or remove, then the effect should not extend down to the lower trophic levels | 118 | |
| 202841442 | Top-down model | proposes the opposite of above; VH, also called a trophic cascade model, predators limit H and H limit V so removing primary carnivores would increase the H and decrease V causing nutrients to rise—alternating +/- effects | 119 | |
| 202841443 | Biomanipulation | when ecologists apply models to help mitigate pollution or remedy environmental problems; ex: using the top-down model to improve water quality in polluted lakes | 120 | |
| 202841444 | Disturbance | an event that changes a community, which may remove organisms from an area and alter resource availability; ex: fire, flood, storm, human activity | 121 | |
| 202841445 | Nonequilibrium model | describes most communities as constantly changing after being affected by disturbances | 122 | |
| 202841446 | Intermediate disturbance hypothesis | states that moderate levels of disturbance can create conditions that foster greater species diversity than low or high levels of disturbance | 123 | |
| 202841447 | Ecological succession | when a disturbed area may be colonized by a verity of species, which are gradually replaced by other species; (related to: primary and secondary succession) | 124 | |
| 202841448 | Primary succession | when succession begins in a lifeless area where soil has not yet formed, like on a volcanic island or after a glacier retreats; prokaryotes present, lichens and mosses are the first to colonize, soil develops as rocks weather and grasses shrubs, trees, vegetation | 125 | |
| 202841449 | Secondary succession | occurs when an existing community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil intact, in a forested area that is cleared, or agricultural fields; ex: Yellowstone after fires; early arrivals facilitate and make favorable for other plants or inhibit of later species, later species might tolerate; pioneering species include mosses, then shrubs, alder small trees and then large trees | 126 | |
| 202841450 | Evapotranspiration | the evaporation of water from soil plus the transpiration of water from plants; a function of solar radiating, temperature and water available, is much higher in hot areas with abundant rainfall than in areas with low temperature or low precipitation; (related to: potential evapotranspiration) | 127 | |
| 202841451 | Species -area curve | all other factors being equal, the larger the geographic area of a community, the more species it has; larger areas offer a greater diversity of habitats and microhabitats than smaller areas (relates to: island biogeography, equilibrium) | 128 | |
| 202841452 | Pathogens | disease causing microorganism, viruses, viroids, or prions (viroids and prions are infections RNA molecules and proteins); use ecology to help track and control pathogens | 129 | |
| 202841453 | Zoonotic pathogens | pathogens that are transferred from other animals to humans, either through direct contact with an infected animal or by means of an intermediate species, called a vector | 130 | |
| 202841454 | Ecosystem | the sum of all the organisms living within in its boundaries and all the abiotic factors with which they interact; can include a vast area or a small place; ex: pond, entire earth, under a log | 131 | |
| 202841455 | Law of conservation of mass | says that matter, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed | 132 | |
| 202841456 | Primary producers | the trophic level that ultimately supports all others consists of autotrophs; most are photosynthetic organisms that use light energy to synthesize sugars and other organic compounds, which they use for cellular respiration, and as a building material for growth; there are chemosynthetic prokaryotes in deep-sea vent ecosystems | 133 | |
| 202841457 | Primary consumers | trophic level consisting of herbivores, which eat plants and other primary producers | 134 | |
| 202841458 | Secondary consumers | consist of carnivores that eat herbivores | 135 | |
| 202841459 | Tertiary consumers | carnivores that eat other carnivores | 136 | |
| 202841460 | Detritivores or decomposers | consumers that get their energy from detritus, or nonliving organic material; the remains of dead organism, feces, fallen leaves, and rotting trees; two important groups to remember are prokaryotes and fungi, which are detritivores | 137 | |
| 202841461 | Primary production | the amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) by autotrophs during a given time period | 138 | |
| 202841462 | Gross primary production (GPP) | total primary production in an ecosystem; or the amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy by photosynthesis per unit of time | 139 | |
| 202841463 | Net primary production (NPP) | is the gross primary production minus thee energy used by the primary producers for respiration (R); NPP=GPP-R; represents the storage of chemical energy that will be available to consumers in the ecosystem; amount of new biomass added in a given period of time | 140 | |
| 202841464 | Limiting nutrient | is an element that must be added for production to increase; usually nitrogen or phosphorous and even iron in the case of phytoplankton | 141 | |
| 202841465 | Eutrophication | when swage and fertilizer runoff from farms and yards add large amounts of nutrients to bodies of water and cyanobacteria and algae grow rapidly in response and ultimately reduce the oxygen concentration and clarity of the water | 142 | |
| 202841466 | Secondary production | the amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given time period | 143 | |
| 202841467 | Production efficiency | the percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is not used for respiration; production efficiency= (net secondary production X 100%)/ (assimilation of primary production); insects and microorganism are most efficient with 40% production efficiencies | 144 | |
| 202841468 | Trophic efficiency | the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next; must always be less than production efficiency because they take into account not only the energy lost through respiration and contained in feces but also the energy in organic material in a lower trophic level that is not consumed by the next trophic level; (relates to: pyramid of net production, biomass pyramid) | 145 | |
| 202841469 | Turnover time | when an organism have a small standing crop compared to their production; turnover time= (standing crop (g/m2)/ (production g/m2 x day) | 146 | |
| 202841470 | Green world hypothesis | postulates that terrestrial herbivores are held in check by a variety of factors like plant defenses (spines or noxious chemicals); thus limiting the success of herbivores; plus other factors including abiotic pressures (temperature and moisture extremes), intraspecific competition (territorial behavior), interspecific competition (predators, pathogens, parasites) | 147 | |
| 202841471 | Biogeochemical cycles | nutrient cycles that involve both biotic and abiotic components; can be global or local; at different stages, either organic or inorganic and either available for use or unavailable; (relates to: the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the phosphorous cycle) | 148 | |
| 202841472 | Critical load | the amount of an added nutrient that can be absorbed by plants without damaging the ecosystem integrity; ex: nitrogen or phosphorous; bad if goes over amount | 149 | |
| 202841473 | Biological magnification | when toxins accumulate in specific tissues, especially fat, and become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web; magnification occurs because the biomass at any given trophic level is produced from a much larger biomass ingested from the level below; ex: DDT and PCBs accumulating, Silent spring; (relates to: bioaccumulation) | 150 | |
| 202841474 | Greenhouse effect | even though most of the solar radiation that strikes the earth goes back into space, CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere intercept and absorb much of the infrared radiation and reflects it back towards earth, warming the earth's surface; more CO2 will make trees and other plants grow faster but a warming trend would be very devastating as geographic distribution of precipitation would change, etc. | 151 | |
| 202841475 | Conservation biology | integrates ecology, physiology, molecular biology, genetics, and evolutionary biology to conserve biological diversity at all levels; include efforts to sustain ecosystem processes and stem the loss of biodiversity also connect the life sciences with the social sciences, economics and humanities | 152 | |
| 202841476 | Restoration ecology | applying ecological principles to return ecosystems that have been disturbed by human activities to a condition as similar as possible to their natural state; ex: Kissimmee River in Florida being let back to its original flowing state | 153 | |
| 202841477 | Endangered species | species that are in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range | 154 | |
| 202841478 | Threatened species | species that are considered likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future | 155 | |
| 202841479 | Ecosystem services | all the processes through which natural ecosystems help sustain human life on Earth; ex: purifying air and water, detoxify and decompose wastes, reduce the impacts of extreme weather and flooding, pollinate our crops, control pests, crate and preserve our soils; all these services are free | 156 | |
| 202841480 | Introduced species | non-native species or exotic species are those that humans move either by accident or intentionally from the species native locations to new geography locations; ex: travel by ship (zebra mussels), airplane, etc; free from predators, parasites and pathogens that limited their populations in their native habitats, such species may spread rapidly through a new region, hurting native species; (relate to: invasive species) | 157 | |
| 202841481 | Extinction vortex | when a small population is prone to positive feedback loops if inbreeding and genetic drift that draw the population toward smaller and smaller population size until no individuals exist; one key factor that drives the vortex is the loss of genetic variation necessary to enable evolutionary response to environmental change and stress; inbreeding reduces fitness because offspring are more likely to be homozygous for harmful recessive traits | 158 | |
| 202841482 | Minimum viable population (MVP) | the minimal population size at which a species is able to sustain its members and survive; estimated using computer models | 159 | |
| 202841483 | Effective population size | based on the breeding potential of a population; incorporates the sex ratio of breeding individuals into the estimate of effective population size; Ne= (4NfNm)/(Nf+Nm); life history traits influence Ne and alternate ways of calculating take into account family size, age at maturation, genetic relatedness among population members, the effects of gene flow between geographically separated populations, and population fluctuations; conservation goal is to keep Ne above MVP | 160 | |
| 202841484 | Movement corridor | a narrow strip or series of small clumps of habitat connecting otherwise isolated patches of habitats; can be important for conserving biodiversity; ex: artificial corridors over roads; exchange of many organisms but also diseases | 161 | |
| 202841485 | Biodiversity hot spot | relatively small areas with an exceptional concentration of endemic species and a large number of endangered and threatened species (terrestrial and aquatic) | 162 | |
| 202841486 | Zoned reserve | an extensive region that includes areas relatively undisturbed by humans surround by areas that have been changed by human activity and are used for economic gain; key is to develop a social and economic climate in the surrounding lands that is compatible with e long term viability of the protected core; ex: Costa Rica's efforts | 163 | |
| 202841487 | Bioremediation | the use of organism (usually prokaryotes, fungi, or plants) to detoxify polluted ecosystems; ex: plants can take out zinc, nickel, lead, and cadmium in their tissues; even lichen with ethanol can take out uranium | 164 | |
| 202841488 | Biological augmentation | uses organism to add essential materials to a degraded ecosystem; ex: nitrogen-fixing herbs to bring nitrogen into the soil | 165 | |
| 202841489 | Sustainable development | development that meets the needs of people today without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs; (related to: connecting life science with social sciences, economics, humanities, personal values) | 166 |
