AP Environmental Ecology Flashcards
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| 9717335072 | Population | a localized group of individuals of the same species that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring | 0 | |
| 9717335073 | Community | all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; as assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction | 1 | |
| 9717335074 | Ecosystem | all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact | 2 | |
| 9717335075 | Biotic | pertaining to the living organisms in the environment | 3 | |
| 9717335076 | Abiotic | nonliving; referring to physical and chemical properties of an environment | 4 | |
| 9717335077 | Biosphere | the entire portion of earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems | 5 | |
| 9717335078 | Niche | the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment | 6 | |
| 9717335079 | Clumped Distribution | individual aggregated patches, some organisms group together where food is abundant | 7 | |
| 9717335080 | Uniform Distribution | evenly spaced, some organisms maintain evenly distributed spacing to avoid aggressive interactions between neighbors | 8 | |
| 9717335081 | Random Distribution | unpredictable spacing, some plants grow in random groups if their seeds were windblown across an area | 9 | |
| 9717335082 | 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 | |
| 9717335086 | Age Structure | the relative number of individuals of each age in a population | 11 | |
| 9717335087 | Immigration Rate | the rate of influx of new individuals INTO a population from other areas | 12 | |
| 9717335088 | Emigration Rate | the rate of movement of individuals OUT of a population | 13 | |
| 9717335089 | Carrying Capacity | the maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, (symbolized by K) |  | 14 |
| 9717335090 | Density Dependent | any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density | 15 | |
| 9717335091 | Exponential Growth | growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, (represented by a J-Shaped curve when population size is plotted over time) | 16 | |
| 9717335092 | Logistical Growth | population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity | 17 | |
| 9717335093 | K-Selected | stabilize around carrying capacity, have fewer offspring later in life, mature later, live longer and invest more parental care | 18 | |
| 9717335094 | R-Selected | reside in unstable environment, have many offspring early in life, mature earlier, shorter life span, no parental care | 19 | |
| 9717335096 | Type I Surivorship Curve | low death rates during early/middle life then increase among older age groups (humans) | 20 | |
| 9717335097 | Type II Surviorship Curve | constant death rate over the organism's life span | 21 | |
| 9717335098 | Type III Surviorship Curve | very high death rates for the young and then declines for those few individuals that survive the early period (insects) | 22 | |
| 9717335099 | Symbiosis | an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact | 23 | |
| 9717335100 | Commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed | 24 | |
| 9717335101 | Mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit | 25 | |
| 9717335102 | 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 | |
| 9717335103 | Intraspecific Competition | interactions between the same species competing for resources | 27 | |
| 9717335104 | Interspecific Competition | competition for resources between individuals of two or more species when resources are in short supply | 28 | |
| 9717335105 | Predation | an interaction between species in which one species (the predator) eats the other (the prey) | 29 | |
| 9717335107 | Mimicry | when a harmless species look like a species that is poisonous or harmful to predators | 30 | |
| 9717335108 | Cryptic Coloration | camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background | 31 | |
| 9717335110 | 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 | 32 | |
| 9717335111 | Climax Community | in a community of organisms in a specific area there is one state of equilibrium controlled solely by climate | 33 | |
| 9717335112 | Succession | the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time | 34 | |
| 9717335113 | 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 | 35 | |
| 9717335114 | 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 | 36 | |
| 9717335115 | autotrophs | an organism that harnesses light energy to drive the synthesis of organic compounds from Carbon Dioxide (CO2) | 37 | |
| 9717335117 | Herbivore | an animal that eats mainly plants or algae | 38 | |
| 9717335118 | Carnivore | an animal that mainly eats other animals | 39 | |
| 9717335119 | 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) | 40 | |
| 9717335120 | Food Chain | the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers | 41 | |
| 9717335121 | Food Web | the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem | 42 | |
| 9717335122 | Trophic Levels | the positions organisms occupy in a food chain | 43 | |
| 9717335123 | Secondary Consumer | a carnivore that eats herbivores | 44 | |
| 9717335124 | Primary Consumer | a herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs | 45 | |
| 9717335125 | Biogeochemical Cycles | any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems | 46 | |
| 9717335126 | Carbon Cycle | forming the framework of organic molecules, photosynthesis & cellular respiration circulate this nutrient | 47 | |
| 9717335127 | Phosphorus Cycle | cycling of this nutrient through geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation | 48 | |
| 9717335128 | 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 | 49 | |
| 9717335131 | 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 | 50 | |
| 9717335132 | Age Structure Diagrams | a visual representation of the relative number of individuals of each age in a population | 51 | |
| 9717335133 | 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 | 52 | |
| 9717335134 | 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 | 53 | |
| 9717335135 | Zero Population Growth (ZPG) | a period of stability in population size, when the per capita birth rate and death rate are equal | 54 | |
| 9717335136 | Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) | the total primary production of an ecosystem | 55 | |
| 9717335137 | Net Primary Productivity (NPP) | the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration | 56 | |
| 9717335138 | 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 | 57 | |
| 9717335139 | 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 | 58 | |
| 9717335140 | 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 | 59 | |
| 9717335141 | Biological Magnification | a process in which retained substances become more concentrated at each high trophic level in a food chain | 60 | |
| 9717335142 | 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 | 61 | |
| 9717335144 | Fundamental Niche | the niche potentially occupied by that species | 62 | |
| 9717335145 | Realized Niche | the portion of the fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in the environment | 63 | |
| 9717335146 | Invasive Species | a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range | 64 | |
| 9717335157 | Density dependent factor | factor that affects population based on size (disease, predation etc) | 65 | |
| 9717335158 | Density independent factor | factor that affect population regardless of size (weather, humans etc) | 66 | |
| 9717335159 | Species diversity | variety of organisms in a community | 67 | |
| 9717335160 | Species richness | the number of different species in a community | 68 | |
| 9717335161 | Relative abundance | evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community | 69 |