AP Biology Ecology Flashcards

8064790999	Population	a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring	0
8064791000	Community	all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction	1
8064791001	Ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact	2
8064791002	Biotic	pertaining to the living organisms in the environment	3
8064791003	Abiotic	nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment	4
8064791004	Biosphere	the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems	5
8064791005	Niche	the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment	6
8064791006	Clumped Distribution	individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant	7
8064791007	Uniform Distribution	evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors	8
8064791008	Random Distribution	unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area	9
8064791009	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
8064791010	Birth Rate	rate of annual birth within a population	11
8064791011	Death Rate	rate of annual death within a population	12
8064791012	Sex Ratio	ratio of females to males within a population	13
8064791013	Age Structure	the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	14
8064791014	Immigration Rate	the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas	15
8064791015	Emigration Rate	the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population	16
8064791016	Carrying Capacity	the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K)	17
8064791017	Density Dependent	any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density	18
8064791018	Exponential Growth	growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, (represented by a J-Shaped curve when population size is plotted over time)	19
8064791019	Logistical Growth	population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity	20
8064791020	K-Selected	stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care	21
8064791021	R-Selected	reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care	22
8064791022	Survivorship Curve	the plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age	23
8064791023	Type I Surivorship Curve	low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans)	24
8064791024	Type II Surviorship Curve	constant death rate over the organism's life span	25
8064791025	Type III Surviorship Curve	very high death rates for the young and then declines for those few individuals that survive the early period (insects)	26
8064791026	Symbiosis	an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact	27
8064791027	Commensalism	a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed	28
8064791028	Mutualism	a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit	29
8064791029	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	30
8064791030	Intraspecific Competition	interactions between the same species competing for resources	31
8064791031	Interspecific Competition	competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply	32
8064791032	Predation	an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey)	33
8064791033	Aposematic Coloration	the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators	34
8064791034	Batesian Mimicry	a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators	35
8064791035	Cryptic Coloration	camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background	36
8064791036	Mullerian Mimicry	a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species	37
8064791037	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	38
8064791038	Climax Community	in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate	39
8064791039	Succession	the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time	40
8064791040	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	41
8064791041	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	42
8064791042	Photoautotrophs	an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	43
8064791043	Chemoautotrophs	an organism that needs only CO2 as a carbon source but obtains energy by oxidizing inorganic substances	44
8064791044	Herbivore	an animal that eats mainly plants or algae	45
8064791045	Carnivore	an animal that mainly eats other animals	46
8064791046	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)	47
8064791047	Food Chain	the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers	48
8064791048	Food Web	the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem	49
8064791049	Trophic Levels	the positions organisms occupy in a food chain	50
8064791050	Secondary Consumer	a carnivore that eats herbivores	51
8064791051	Primary Consumer	a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs	52
8064791052	Biogeochemical Cycles	any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems	53
8064791053	Carbon Cycle	forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient	54
8064791054	Phosphorus Cycle	cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation	55
8064791055	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	56
8064791056	Nitrogen Fixation	the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia	57
8064791057	Denitrification	process where bacteria use nitrates in their metabolism instead of oxygen releasing nitrogen gas then into the atmosphere	58
8064791059	Age Structure Diagrams	a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	59
8064791060	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	60
8064791061	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	61
8064791063	Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)	the total primary production of an ecosystem	62
8064791064	Net Primary Productivity (NPP)	the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration	63
8064791065	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	64
8064791068	Biological Magnification	a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain	65
8064791069	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
8064791070	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
8064791071	Fundamental Niche	the niche potentially occupied by that species	68
8064791072	Realized Niche	the portion of the fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in the environment	69
8064791073	Invasive Species	a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range	70
8064791074	Altruism	behavior that increases fitness of another individual but decreases their own fitness	71
8064791075	Kin selection	enhancing the reproductive success of one's relatives	72
8064791076	Nitrification	ammonia is converted to nitrates and nitrites	73
8064791077	Ammonification	decomposers convert organic nitrogen to ammonia	74
8064791078	Classical conditioning	association between neutral stimulus and natural response (ex: dogs salivating to sound of bell ringing)	75
8064791079	Operant conditioning	trial and error learning; making associations between behavior and a reward or punishment	76
8064791080	Communication	tactile, visual, auditory and chemical means of relaying messages to other members of ones species	77
8064791081	Taxis	directed movement towards or away from a stimulus	78
8064791082	Kinesis	movement in response to a stimulus that is not directional	79
8064791083	Fixed Action Pattern	a sequence of unlearned actions that are unchangable and often carried to completion	80
8064791084	Density dependent factor	factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc)	81
8064791085	Density independent factor	factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc)	82
8064791086	Species diversity	variety of organisms in a community	83