AP Biology Ecology Flashcards

10376103554	Population	a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring	0
10376103555	Community	all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction	1
10376103556	Ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact	2
10376103557	Biotic	pertaining to the living organisms in the environment	3
10376103558	Abiotic	nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment	4
10376103559	Biosphere	the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems	5
10376103560	Niche	the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment	6
10376103561	Clumped Distribution	individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant	7
10376103562	Uniform Distribution	evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors	8
10376103563	Random Distribution	unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area	9
10376103564	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
10376103565	Birth Rate	rate of annual birth within a population	11
10376103566	Death Rate	rate of annual death within a population	12
10376103567	Sex Ratio	ratio of females to males within a population	13
10376103569	Immigration Rate	the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas	14
10376103570	Emigration Rate	the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population	15
10376103571	Carrying Capacity	the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K)	16
10376103573	Exponential Growth	growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, (represented by a J-Shaped curve when population size is plotted over time)	17
10376103574	Logistical Growth	population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity	18
10376103575	K-Selected	stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care	19
10376103576	R-Selected	reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care	20
10376103577	Survivorship Curve	the plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age	21
10376103578	Type I Survivorship Curve	low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans)	22
10376103579	Type II Surviorship Curve	constant death rate over the organism's life span	23
10376103580	Type III Surviorship Curve	very high death rates for the young and then declines for those few individuals that survive the early period (insects)	24
10376103581	Symbiosis	an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact	25
10376103582	Commensalism	a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed	26
10376103583	Mutualism	a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit	27
10376103584	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	28
10376103585	Intraspecific Competition	interactions between the same species competing for resources	29
10376103586	Interspecific Competition	competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply	30
10376103587	Predation	an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey)	31
10376103588	Aposematic Coloration	the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators	32
10376103589	Batesian Mimicry	a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators	33
10376103590	Cryptic Coloration	camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background	34
10376103591	Mullerian Mimicry	a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species	35
10376103592	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	36
10376103593	Climax Community	in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate	37
10376103594	Succession	the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time	38
10376103595	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	39
10376103596	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	40
10376103597	Photoautotrophs	an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	41
10376103598	Chemoautotrophs	an organism that needs only CO2 as a carbon source but obtains energy by oxidizing inorganic substances	42
10376103599	Herbivore	an animal that eats mainly plants or algae	43
10376103600	Carnivore	an animal that mainly eats other animals	44
10376103601	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)	45
10376103602	Food Chain	the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers	46
10376103603	Food Web	the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem	47
10376103604	Trophic Levels	the positions organisms occupy in a food chain	48
10376103605	Secondary Consumer	a carnivore that eats herbivores	49
10376103606	Primary Consumer	a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs	50
10376103607	Biogeochemical Cycles	any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems	51
10376103608	Carbon Cycle	forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient	52
10376103609	Phosphorus Cycle	cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation	53
10376103610	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	54
10376103611	Nitrogen Fixation	the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia	55
10376103612	Denitrification	process where bacteria use nitrates in their metabolism instead of oxygen releasing nitrogen gas then into the atmosphere	56
10376103613	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	57
10376103614	Age Structure Diagrams	a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	58
10376103615	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	59
10376103616	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	60
10376103617	Zero Population Growth (ZPG)	a period of stability in population size, when the per capita birth rate and death rate are equal	61
10376103620	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	62
10376103621	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	63
10376103622	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	64
10376103623	Biological Magnification	a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain	65
10376103624	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
10376103625	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
10376103628	Invasive Species	a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range	68
10376103629	Altruism	behavior that increases fitness of another individual but decreases their own fitness	69
10376103630	Kin selection	enhancing the reproductive success of one's relatives	70
10376103639	Density dependent factor	factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc)	71
10376103640	Density independent factor	factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc)	72
10376103641	Species diversity	variety of organisms in a community	73
10376103642	Species richness	the number of different species in a community	74
10376103643	Relative abundance	evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community	75