SJCC Environmental Science Ecosystem Test Vocabulary
Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in
each of the black spaces below before clicking
on it to display the answer.
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| Ecology | The study of how species interact with each other and with their environment
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| Habitat | The physical environment where an organism lives
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| Niche | The role an organism plays in its environment
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| Fundamental Niche | The full range of the habitat where a species can exist and reproduce without competition from other species
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| Realized Niche | Niche in practice, including competition
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| Competition | Species vie for scarce environmental resources, including food, water, space, and light.
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| Principle of Competitive Exclusion | A species in direct competition with each other cannot coexist
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| Intraspecific | Same species
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| Interspecific | Different species
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| Territorial Aggression | An individual stakes and defends its territory against other individuals of the same species
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| Symbiosis | Species interact in ways that are beneficial to one or both
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| Mutualism | Both partners benefit
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| Commensalism | One partner benefits without affecting the other
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| Parasitism | One partner benefits while the other is harmed
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| Predation | One organism, the predator, eats another organism, the prey
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| Keystone Species | A species that plays a crucial role in an ecosystem or whose influence is much greater than might be expected given its abundance
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| Biodiversity | The variety of life forms (richness or variety of a species)
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| Habitat Diversity | Also called ecosystem diversity; Refers to the variety of habitat types in an ecosystem and the biologic richness of those habitats
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| Genetic Diversity | Refers to the amount of variability or heterogeneity that is available among the DNA of individuals within a population or species
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| Species Diversity | Encompasses the concepts of species richness and evenness
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| Species Richness | Refers to the number of species in a community
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| Species Evenness | Refers to the relative abundance of individuals within each species
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| Divergent Evolution | Individuals of a species change over time in a way that makes them more different from one another
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| Adaptive Radiation | The process of one species evolving into a number of new species
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| Convergent Evolution | Individuals of different species change over time in a way that makes them more similar to one another
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| Extinction | The disappearance of a species from the Earth
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| Mass Extinction | Many species become extinct in a geologically short period of time
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| Endangered Species | A species that is in imminent danger of extinction
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| Megadiversity Hot Spot | Clusters of biodiversity in certain highly productive areas of the earth
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| r-strategist | Organisms that produce a large number of offspring, only some of which survive- small body size, short life span, large number of eggs or offspring
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| k-strategist | Larger organisms with longer lifespans-Small number of organisms less often, devote energy to parental care of offspring, vulnerable to extinction because of low reproductive rate
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| Specialist | An organism with a narrow niche and is completely dependent upon the availability of a specific habitat or available resource
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| Generalist | An organism that readily adjusts to changes in its habitat or available resources
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| Poaching | The illegal harvesting of wild species for commercial exploitation
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| Exotic Species | An organism that is not a native of a particular ecosystem; alien
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| Endemic Species | An organism that is the native species of a particular ecosystem
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| Habitat Fragmentation | Large tracts of natural area that are broken up into smaller patches by roads or other developments
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| Metabolism | The set of chemical reactions through which an organism derives food energy
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| Autotrophs | Make their own food
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| Heterotrophs | Eat organisms for food
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| Producers | Autotrophs
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| Consumers | Heterotrophs
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| Primary Consumers | Eat producers
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| Herbivores | Eat plants
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| Secondary Consumers | Eat primary consumers and producers
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| Tertiary Consumers | Eat primary consumers, secondary consumers, and producers
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| Carnivores | Eat meat
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| Omivores | Eat plants and animals
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| Detritivores | Consumers that eat detritus
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| Decomposer (Saprotroph) | Breakdown dead organic material into simple carbohydrates, mineral salts, and carbon dioxide
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| Food chain | A linear sequence of organisms that exist on successive trophic levels within a natural community, through which energy is transferred by feeding.
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| Trophic Level | Each level of a food chain
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| Food Web | A non-linear network of feeding between organisms that includes many food chains, and hence multiple organisms on each trophic level.
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| Biomass | A quantitative measure of the amount of organic matter in an ecosystem or part of an ecosystem.
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| Phytomass | Plant matter
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| Zoomass | Animal matter
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| Ecological Pyramid | A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter, or numbers of organisms within each trophic level in a food chain or food web
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| Biologic Productivity | A measure of the rate at which biomass is produced
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| Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) | The amount of biomass produced by photosynthesis in a given area during a specific amount of time
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| Net Primary Productivity (NPP) | The amount of organic material available for consumption in a given area. GPP minus losses due to plant respiration.
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