AP Biology Ecology Flashcards

9616386404	Population	a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring	0
9616386405	Community	all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction	1
9616386406	Ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact	2
9616386407	Biotic	pertaining to the living organisms in the environment	3
9616386408	Abiotic	nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment	4
9616386409	Biosphere	the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems	5
9616386410	Niche	the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment	6
9616386411	Clumped Distribution	individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant	7
9616386412	Uniform Distribution	evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors	8
9616386413	Random Distribution	unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area	9
9616386414	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
9616386415	Birth Rate	rate of annual birth within a population	11
9616386416	Death Rate	rate of annual death within a population	12
9616386417	Sex Ratio	ratio of females to males within a population	13
9616386418	Age Structure	the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	14
9616386419	Immigration Rate	the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas	15
9616386420	Emigration Rate	the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population	16
9616386421	Carrying Capacity	the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K)	17
9616386422	Density Dependent	any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density	18
9616386423	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
9616386424	Logistical Growth	population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity	20
9616386425	K-Selected	stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care	21
9616386426	R-Selected	reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care	22
9616386431	Symbiosis	an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact	23
9616386432	Commensalism	a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed	24
9616386433	Mutualism	a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit	25
9616386434	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	26
9616386437	Predation	an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey)	27
9616386438	Aposematic Coloration	the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators	28
9616386439	Batesian Mimicry	a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators	29
9616386440	Cryptic Coloration	camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background	30
9616386441	Mullerian Mimicry	a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species	31
9616386443	Climax Community	in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate	32
9616386444	Succession	the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time	33
9616386445	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	34
9616386446	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	35
9616386449	Herbivore	an animal that eats mainly plants or algae	36
9616386450	Carnivore	an animal that mainly eats other animals	37
9616386451	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)	38
9616386452	Food Chain	the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers	39
9616386453	Food Web	the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem	40
9616386454	Trophic Levels	the positions organisms occupy in a food chain	41
9616386455	Secondary Consumer	a carnivore that eats herbivores	42
9616386456	Primary Consumer	a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs	43
9616386465	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	44
9616386466	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	45
9616386474	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	46
9616386478	Invasive Species	a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range	47
9616386489	Density dependent factor	factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc)	48
9616386490	Density independent factor	factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc)	49
9616386491	Species diversity	variety of organisms in a community	50
9616386492	Species richness	the number of different species in a community	51
9616386493	Relative abundance	evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community	52