AP Biology Ecology Flashcards

9792503735	Population	a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring	0
9792503736	Community	all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction	1
9792503737	Ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact	2
9792503738	Biotic	pertaining to the living organisms in the environment	3
9792503739	Abiotic	nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment	4
9792503740	Biosphere	the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems	5
9792503741	Niche	the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment	6
9792503742	Clumped Distribution	individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant	7
9792503743	Uniform Distribution	evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors	8
9792503744	Random Distribution	unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area	9
9792503745	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
9792503746	Birth Rate	rate of annual birth within a population	11
9792503747	Death Rate	rate of annual death within a population	12
9792503748	Sex Ratio	ratio of females to males within a population	13
9792503749	Age Structure	the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	14
9792503750	Immigration Rate	the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas	15
9792503751	Emigration Rate	the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population	16
9792503752	Carrying Capacity	the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K)	17
9792503753	Density Dependent	any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density	18
9792503754	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
9792503755	Logistical Growth	population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity	20
9792503756	K-Selected	stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care	21
9792503757	R-Selected	reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care	22
9792503758	Survivorship Curve	the plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age	23
9792503759	Type I Surivorship Curve	low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans)	24
9792503760	Type II Surviorship Curve	constant death rate over the organism's life span	25
9792503761	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
9792503762	Symbiosis	an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact	27
9792503763	Commensalism	a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed	28
9792503764	Mutualism	a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit	29
9792503765	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
9792503766	Intraspecific Competition	interactions between the same species competing for resources	31
9792503767	Interspecific Competition	competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply	32
9792503768	Predation	an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey)	33
9792503769	Aposematic Coloration	the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators	34
9792503770	Batesian Mimicry	a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators	35
9792503771	Cryptic Coloration	camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background	36
9792503772	Mullerian Mimicry	a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species	37
9792503773	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
9792503774	Climax Community	in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate	39
9792503775	Succession	the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time	40
9792503776	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
9792503777	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
9792503778	Photoautotrophs	an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	43
9792503779	Chemoautotrophs	an organism that needs only CO2 as a carbon source but obtains energy by oxidizing inorganic substances	44
9792503780	Herbivore	an animal that eats mainly plants or algae	45
9792503781	Carnivore	an animal that mainly eats other animals	46
9792503782	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
9792503783	Food Chain	the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers	48
9792503784	Food Web	the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem	49
9792503785	Trophic Levels	the positions organisms occupy in a food chain	50
9792503786	Secondary Consumer	a carnivore that eats herbivores	51
9792503787	Primary Consumer	a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs	52
9792503788	Biogeochemical Cycles	any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems	53
9792503789	Carbon Cycle	forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient	54
9792503790	Phosphorus Cycle	cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation	55
9792503791	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
9792503792	Nitrogen Fixation	the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia	57
9792503793	Denitrification	process where bacteria use nitrates in their metabolism instead of oxygen releasing nitrogen gas then into the atmosphere	58
9792503794	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	59
9792503795	Age Structure Diagrams	a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	60
9792503796	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	61
9792503797	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	62
9792503798	Zero Population Growth (ZPG)	a period of stability in population size, when the per capita birth rate and death rate are equal	63
9792503799	Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)	the total primary production of an ecosystem	64
9792503800	Net Primary Productivity (NPP)	the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration	65
9792503801	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	66
9792503802	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	67
9792503803	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	68
9792503804	Biological Magnification	a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain	69
9792503805	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	70
9792503806	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	71
9792503807	Fundamental Niche	the niche potentially occupied by that species	72
9792503808	Realized Niche	the portion of the fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in the environment	73
9792503809	Invasive Species	a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range	74
9792503810	Altruism	behavior that increases fitness of another individual but decreases their own fitness	75
9792503811	Kin selection	enhancing the reproductive success of one's relatives	76
9792503812	Nitrification	ammonia is converted to nitrates and nitrites	77
9792503813	Ammonification	decomposers convert organic nitrogen to ammonia	78
9792503814	Classical conditioning	association between neutral stimulus and natural response (ex: dogs salivating to sound of bell ringing)	79
9792503815	Operant conditioning	trial and error learning; making associations between behavior and a reward or punishment	80
9792503816	Communication	tactile, visual, auditory and chemical means of relaying messages to other members of ones species	81
9792503817	Taxis	directed movement towards or away from a stimulus	82
9792503818	Kinesis	movement in response to a stimulus that is not directional	83
9792503819	Fixed Action Pattern	a sequence of unlearned actions that are unchangable and often carried to completion	84
9792503820	Density dependent factor	factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc)	85
9792503821	Density independent factor	factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc)	86
9792503822	Species diversity	variety of organisms in a community	87
9792503823	Species richness	the number of different species in a community	88
9792503824	Relative abundance	evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community	89