AP Environmental Science: Ecology :) Flashcards
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| 9645278502 | Ecology | The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. (The study of connections in nature) |  | 0 |
| 9645278503 | Ecosystem | A community where populations of different species interact with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy. |  | 1 |
| 9645278504 | Population | A group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area. |  | 2 |
| 9645278505 | Species | A group of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, behavior, chemistry, and genetic makeup. |  | 3 |
| 9645278506 | Habitat | An environment that provides an organism or species with the means to live, grow, and reproduce. (Can be as large as the ocean or as small as animal's intestine) |  | 4 |
| 9645278507 | Abiotic factors | Non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. |  | 5 |
| 9645278508 | Biotic factors | The living factors in the environment such as producers, consumers, and decomposers. | | 6 |
| 9645278509 | niche | The place or function of a given organism within its ecosystem |  | 7 |
| 9645278510 | Fundamental niche | entire set of conditions under which an animal (population, species) can survive and reproduce itself. |  | 8 |
| 9645278511 | Realized niche | the part of fundamental niche that an organism occupies as a result of limiting factors present in its habitat. |  | 9 |
| 9645278512 | Limiting factors | environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem. ... also competition between individuals of a species |  | 10 |
| 9645278513 | Carrying Capacity | the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation. |  | 11 |
| 9645278514 | Population dynamics | the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems, and the biological and environmental processes driving them (such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration). |  | 12 |
| 9645278515 | S & J population curves | S-shaped growth curve, A pattern of growth in a new environment, the population density of an organism increases slowly initially, in a positive acceleration phase; then increases rapidly, approaching an exponential growth rate as in the J-shaped curve; but then declines |  | 13 |
| 9645278516 | Community | the study of the interactions between species in communities on many different scales |  | 14 |
| 9645278517 | Respiration | a process in living organisms involving the production of energy, typically with the intake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide from the oxidation of complex organic substances. |  | 15 |
| 9645278518 | Photosynthesis | A process used by plants and other autotrophs to capture light and energy and use it to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy-rich carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches. 6CO2 + 6H2O + light --> C6H12O6 + 6O2 |  | 16 |
| 9645278519 | Trophic level | each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that SHARE the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy |  | 17 |
| 9645278520 | Ecological Pyramids | graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem. |  | 18 |
| 9645278521 | Productivity | he rate of production of new biomass by an individual, population, or community; the fertility or capacity of a given habitat or area. |  | 19 |
| 9645278522 | Gross primary productivity | the total amount of biomass produced via photosynthesis over a given amount of time |  | 20 |
| 9645278523 | Net primary Productivity | The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy producers respire |  | 21 |
| 9645278524 | Biomes | Broad, regional types of ecosystems characterized by distinctive climates and soil conditions and distinctive kinds of biological communities adapted to those conditions. |  | 22 |
| 9645278525 | Biosphere | All of the Earth's ecosystems, or the global ecosystem where all life in interconnected. |  | 23 |
| 9645278526 | Salinity | the concentration of dissolved salts in water |  | 24 |
| 9645278527 | Species diversity | number of different species that are represented in a given community |  | 25 |