AP Biology Ecology Flashcards

9906489166	Population	a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring	0
9906489167	Community	all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction	1
9906489168	Ecosystem	all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact	2
9906489169	Biotic	pertaining to the living organisms in the environment	3
9906489170	Abiotic	nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment	4
9906489171	Biosphere	the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems	5
9906489172	Niche	the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment	6
9906489173	Clumped Distribution	individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant	7
9906489174	Uniform Distribution	evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors	8
9906489175	Random Distribution	unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area	9
9906489176	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
9906489177	Birth Rate	rate of annual birth within a population	11
9906489178	Death Rate	rate of annual death within a population	12
9906489179	Sex Ratio	ratio of females to males within a population	13
9906489180	Age Structure	the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	14
9906489181	Immigration Rate	the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas	15
9906489182	Emigration Rate	the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population	16
9906489183	Carrying Capacity	the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K)	17
9906489184	Density Dependent	any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density	18
9906489185	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
9906489186	Logistical Growth	population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity	20
9906489187	K-Selected	stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care	21
9906489188	R-Selected	reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care	22
9906489189	Survivorship Curve	the plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age	23
9906489190	Type I Surivorship Curve	low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans)	24
9906489191	Type II Surviorship Curve	constant death rate over the organism's life span	25
9906489192	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
9906489193	Symbiosis	an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact	27
9906489194	Commensalism	a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed	28
9906489195	Mutualism	a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit	29
9906489196	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
9906489197	Intraspecific Competition	interactions between the same species competing for resources	31
9906489198	Interspecific Competition	competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply	32
9906489199	Predation	an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey)	33
9906489200	Aposematic Coloration	the bright coloration of animals with effective physical or chemical defenses that acts as a warning to predators	34
9906489201	Batesian Mimicry	a type of mimicry in which a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators	35
9906489202	Cryptic Coloration	camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background	36
9906489203	Mullerian Mimicry	a mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species	37
9906489204	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
9906489205	Climax Community	in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate	39
9906489206	Succession	the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time	40
9906489207	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
9906489208	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
9906489209	Photoautotrophs	an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	43
9906489210	Chemoautotrophs	an organism that needs only CO2 as a carbon source but obtains energy by oxidizing inorganic substances	44
9906489211	Herbivore	an animal that eats mainly plants or algae	45
9906489212	Carnivore	an animal that mainly eats other animals	46
9906489213	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
9906489214	Food Chain	the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers	48
9906489215	Food Web	the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem	49
9906489216	Trophic Levels	the positions organisms occupy in a food chain	50
9906489217	Secondary Consumer	a carnivore that eats herbivores	51
9906489218	Primary Consumer	a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs	52
9906489219	Biogeochemical Cycles	any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems	53
9906489220	Carbon Cycle	forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient	54
9906489221	Phosphorus Cycle	cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation	55
9906489222	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
9906489223	Nitrogen Fixation	the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia	57
9906489224	Denitrification	process where bacteria use nitrates in their metabolism instead of oxygen releasing nitrogen gas then into the atmosphere	58
9906489225	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
9906489226	Age Structure Diagrams	a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population	60
9906489227	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
9906489228	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
9906489229	Zero Population Growth (ZPG)	a period of stability in population size, when the per capita birth rate and death rate are equal	63
9906489230	Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)	the total primary production of an ecosystem	64
9906489231	Net Primary Productivity (NPP)	the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration	65
9906489232	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
9906489233	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
9906489234	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
9906489235	Biological Magnification	a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain	69
9906489236	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
9906489237	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
9906489238	Fundamental Niche	the niche potentially occupied by that species	72
9906489239	Realized Niche	the portion of the fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in the environment	73
9906489240	Invasive Species	a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range	74
9906489241	Altruism	behavior that increases fitness of another individual but decreases their own fitness	75
9906489242	Kin selection	enhancing the reproductive success of one's relatives	76
9906489243	Nitrification	ammonia is converted to nitrates and nitrites	77
9906489244	Ammonification	decomposers convert organic nitrogen to ammonia	78
9906489245	Classical conditioning	association between neutral stimulus and natural response (ex: dogs salivating to sound of bell ringing)	79
9906489246	Operant conditioning	trial and error learning; making associations between behavior and a reward or punishment	80
9906489247	Communication	tactile, visual, auditory and chemical means of relaying messages to other members of ones species	81
9906489248	Taxis	directed movement towards or away from a stimulus	82
9906489249	Kinesis	movement in response to a stimulus that is not directional	83
9906489250	Fixed Action Pattern	a sequence of unlearned actions that are unchangable and often carried to completion	84
9906489251	Density dependent factor	factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc)	85
9906489252	Density independent factor	factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc)	86
9906489253	Species diversity	variety of organisms in a community	87
9906489254	Species richness	the number of different species in a community	88
9906489255	Relative abundance	evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community	89