APES Flashcards

7190112595	altitude	distance above sea level	0
7190112596	animalia	animal kingdom	1
7190112597	atmosphere	mass of air surrounding the earth	2
7190112598	autotrophs	organisms that create their own energy/food	3
7190112599	biogeochemical cycles	cycling of nutrients in nature	4
7190112600	biomass	total dry weight of an ecosystem	5
7190112601	biomes	a large area determined by its climate and predominant vegetation	6
7190112602	biosphere	zone of earth where life is found	7
7190112603	biotic potential	maximum population size of a species in ideal ecosystem	8
7190112604	carbon cycle	cycling of carbon compounds throughout the environment	9
7190112605	carrying capacity (K)	maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely	10
7190112606	chaparral	biome characterized by low precipication, mild winters, and shrubs/bushes.	11
7190112607	chemosynthesis	converting inorganic materials into energy without sunlight	12
7190112608	climate	average weather conditions in a region	13
7190112609	commensalism	two organisms interacting in which one benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed	14
7190112610	community	populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time	15
7190112611	coniferous forest	dense, cluster of trees characterized by cone-bearing, needle-leaved trees	16
7190112612	deciduous forest	dense, cluster of broad-leaf trees that lose their leaves each year	17
7190112613	decomposers	organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms e.g. fungi and bacteria	18
7190112614	desert	biome characterized by less than 25 cm per year of precipitation and low vegetation	19
7190112615	detritivores	group of decomposers that consume detritus e.g. worms	20
7190112616	detritus	parts of dead organic material	21
7190112617	dissolved oxygen	O2 in water	22
7190112618	ecological efficiency	effectivness of energy transfer from one trophic level to next	23
7190112619	ecological succession	predictable changes in biotic and abiotic conditions of an ecosystem	24
7190112620	ecosystem	interactions of organisms with their biotic and abiotic factors	25
7190112621	environmental resistance	Factors that limit maximum population e.g. predators, competition, climate, and food availability	26
7190112622	estuary	partially enclosed coastal area at the mouth of a river where its freshwater meets seawater	27
7190112623	eukaryotes	organisms that have cells with nucleus	28
7190112624	food chain	model explaining energy flow	29
7190112625	food energy pyramid	model explaining food chain with trophic levels and energy loss	30
7190112626	foundation species	species that plays a major role in shaping communities by creating and enhancing a habitat that benefits other species	31
7190112627	fungi	eukaryotic organisms known as decomposers	32
7190112628	GPP	(gross primary productivity) rate at which producers capture AND store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass	33
7190112629	grasslands	a large open area of country covered with grass, especially one used for grazing	34
7190112630	greenhouse effect	natural phenomena where greenhouse gases trap reradiated solar energy from earth	35
7190112631	greenhouse gas	a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g., CO2 and CFCs	36
7190112632	heterotrophs	organism which gets energy by consuming other organisms	37
7190112633	hydrologic cycle	cycling of water molecules through the environment	38
7190112634	hydrosphere	all the waters on the earth's surface	39
7190112635	indicator species	species that serve as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded	40
7190112636	insecta	invertebrates that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae	41
7190112637	interspecific competition	when individuals of different species compete for the same resource in an ecosystem (e.g. food or living space).	42
7190112638	intertidal zones	land covered by water during hide tide but then exposed during low tide AKA littoral zone	43
7190112639	intrinsic rate of growth (r )	rate at which a population could grow if it had unlimited resources	44
7190112640	invasive species	introduced organism to an ecosystm that has economic or environmental harm	45
7190112641	K-selected	species that produce a few offspring but invest a great deal of time and energy to ensure that most of them reach reproductive age	46
7190112642	keystone species	a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.	47
7190112643	latitude	distance a place is from the earth's equator, north or south	48
7190112644	limiting factor	material that will stop reactions because it is consumed the fastest	49
7190112645	lithosphere	Upper part of mantle plus crust	50
7190112646	littoral zone	land covered by water during high tide but exposed during low tide	51
7190112647	logistic growth	population growth curve characterized by exponential growth followed by stabilizing around carrying capacity	52
7190112648	native species	endemic organisms indicating optimal evolutionary adaptations in given area and time	53
7190112649	niche	The function or position of a species within an ecological community.	54
7190112650	nitrogen cycle	cycling of nitrogen molecules in an ecosystem	55
7190112651	NPP	(net primary productivity) amount of biomass produced each year by producers	56
7190112652	omnivores	organism that eats both plants and animals	57
7190112653	organism	living thing	58
7190112654	parasitism	two organisms interacting in which one is harmed and other benefits	59
7190112655	permafrost	permenantly frozen ground	60
7190112656	phosphorus cycle	cycling of phosphorus molecules in an ecosystem	61
7190112657	photosynthesis	process of converting light energy into chemical energy i.e. carbon fixation	62
7190112658	plantae	plant kingdom	63
7190112659	pollination	the transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma.	64
7190112660	population	number of organisms in a given area and time	65
7190112661	predation	two organisms interacting where one is consumed by another	66
7190112662	primary succession	predictable changes in biotic and abiotic conditions of an ecosystem starting from an area with no life	67
7190112663	prokaryotes	single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles e.g. bacteria and cyanobacteria.	68
7190112664	protists	mainly unicellular, eukaryotic microorganisms that do not form tissues.	69
7190112665	r-selected	species that produce many offspring and do not invest much time or energy in them	70
7190112666	rain forest	biome characterized by heavy precipation and dense population of trees	71
7190112667	rain shadow effect	when due to topograpical barrier, the windward side receives large amounts of precipation and the leeward side is dry.	72
7190112668	range of tolerance	limited conditions that an organism can withstand	73
7190112669	resource partitioning	when species divide a niche to avoid competition for resources	74
7190112670	salinity	the total amount of dissolved material in grams in one kilogram of water	75
7190112671	savanna	biome characterized by seasonal rains and grassy plains	76
7190112672	secondary succession	predictable changes in biotic and abiotic conditions of an ecosystem starting from an area with life	77
7190112673	species	group of similiar looking individuals capable of making viable offspring	78
7190112674	stratosphere	the layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere and below mesosphere that contains the ozone layer	79
7190112675	sulfur cycle	cycling of sulphur molecules in an ecosystem	80
7190112676	trophic level	organisms in the same functional level of the food pyramid	81
7190112677	troposphere	lowest region of atmosphere where weather occurs and we live	82
7190112678	tundra	biome characterized permafrost and lack of trees	83
7190112679	watersheds	area where all water collect to common locations	84
7190112680	weather	atmospheric conditions characterized by temperature, wind, and precipitation	85