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General Biology
Exam
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecology | is the scientific study of the interactions of organisms with their environments |
| Biotic factors | include all of the organisms in an area, living component |
| Abiotic factors | environment's nonliving component, the physical and chemical factors |
| population | group of individuals of the same species living in a particular geographic area |
| biosphere | is all of the Earth that is inhabited by life |
| habitat | an organism's environment it lives in, including all of the abiotic and biotic factors |
| organism | how individuals meet their challenges and opportunities of its environment through its physiology or behavior |
| community | all the population of an organism living close together for interactions |
| community | all the biotic factors |
| ecosystem | all of the abiotic and biotic factors |
| biosphere | extends from the Earth, ocean, atmosphere, all of the things that inhabit Earth |
| biomes | the major types of ecological associations that occupy broad geographic regions of land or water |
| pelagic zone | all open water, include zoo plankton |
| benthic zone | the seafloor |
| aphotic zone | insufficient light for photosynthesis |
| photic zone | sufficient light for photosynthesis include phytoplankton,coral reefs, zooplankton |
| wetland | transitional between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems |
| estuaries | where rivers meet the ocean |
| intertidal zone | where the ocean meets the land and the shore is pounded by waves and exposed to the sun |
| tropical forest | occur in equatorial areas, warm temperatures, rainfall, most complex biomes, and harbor enormous numbers of species |
| savannas | warm year round, yearly rainfall, grasses and scattered trees, inhabited by large grazing mammals and insects, zebras |
| deserts | driest of all biomes |
| deserticfication | the conversion of semi-arid regions to desert |
| chaparral | a shrubland, cool, rainy winters, hot, dry summers, periodic fires |
| temperate grasslands | mostly trees, cold winters, droughts |
| temperate broadleaf forest | sufficient moisture that support the growth of large trees, high annual precipitation, altered by agriculture |
| coniferous forest | taiga, cold winters, short wet summers, temperate rain forest, largest terrestrial biome, dominated by cone-bearing evergreen trees |
| tundra | characterized by permafrost, extremely cold with little sunlight,covers the artic, taiga, and polar ice |
| permafrost | continuously frozen subsoil, little precipitation |
| behavior | carried out by muscles or glands under the control of the nervous system in response to the external and internal environmental cues |
| fixed action patterns | behavioral sequences, unchangeable series of actions, reproductive behaviors, behaviors that must be done correctly the first time to survive |
| innate behavior | under strong genetic control, a goose rolling its eggs back into the nest, when bird hatched on a cliff starts to fly |
| sign stimulus | environmental cues that cause a response |
| learning | is a modification of behavior as a result of specific experiences |
| learning | enables animals to change their behaviors in response to changing environmental conditions |
| imprinting | learning that is irreversible and limited to a time period in an animal's life |
| kinesis | random movement in response to a stimulus |
| kinesis | starting or stopping, changing speed, turning more or less frequently |
| taxis | response directed toward or away form a stimulus |
| spatial learning | animals establish memories of landmark in their environment that indicate the location of food, nest sites, mates, hazards |
| cognitive map | exhibit migration, uses codes of the spatial relationships among objects in an animal's surroundings |
| associative learning | the ability to associate one environmental feature with another, trial and error, animal links a stimulus to an outcome |
| associative learning | memory is the key to learning |
| social learning | is learning by observing the behavior of others, a cub imitating it's mother predator skills |
| cognition | the ability to perceive, store, integrate, and use info gathered by the senses, problem solving |
| migration | the most extensive studies of cognitive mapping, the regular back and forth movement of animals between two geographic areas |
| promiscuous mating | no lasting relationships between males and females, no strong pair bonds |
| monogamous mating | one male and one female, both parents participate in parental care |
| polygamous mating | one individual of one sex mating with several of the other, usually consist of one male and many females |
| territories | used for feeding, mating, rearing young |
| territories | fixed location, individuals defend, from which other members of the same species are usually excluded |
| altruism | naked mole rats, honey bee colony, reduces an individual's fitness while increasing the fitness of others in the population |
| inclusive fitness | individual's success at sustaining its genes by producing its own offspring, helping close relatives produce offspring |
| kin selection | natural selection favoring altruistic behavior that benefits relatives, ground squirrels |
| inclusive fitness and kin selection | examples of altruism |
| social behavior | interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species |
| population ecology | the changes in population size and factors that control populations over time |
| population density | is the number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume |
| examples of population density | number of earthworms per cubic meter in forest soil, number of oak trees per square kilometer |
| survivorship curve | plot survivorship as the proportion of individuals from an initial population that are alive at each age |
| survivorship curve | Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 |
| exponential growth | the rate of population increase under ideal conditions |
| exponential growth | G=rN |
| G | growth rate |
| r | per capita rate of increase |
| N | population size |
| limiting factors | restrict population growth |
| density dependent limiting factors | food, nutrients, retreats for safety, nesting sites |
| logistic growth | population growth that is slowed by limiting factors as the population size increases |
| logistic growth formula | G=rN (K-N)/K |
| density dependent | declining of births, and increases in deaths |
| intraspecific competition | competition between two animals of the same species for limited resources |
| density independent factors | unrelated to population density |
| density independent factors | fires, storms, habitat destruction by human activity, or seasonal changes in weather |
| r-selected species | produce more offspring, under unpredictable environments |
| k-selected species | produce fewer offspring, under stable populations |
| demographic transition | the shift from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates |
| demographic transition | reduced the rate of growth in developed countries |
| age structure | affects the future growth of population |
| age structure | is the proportion of individuals in different age groups |
| ecological footprint | is an estimate of the amount of land required to provide the raw materials an individual or a nation consumes |
| ecological footprint | food, fuel, water, housing, and waste disposal |
| species diversity | species richness, the number of species in a community and relative abundances, the proportional representation of a species in a community |
| mutualism | both organism benefit, plants and mycorrhizae |
| niche | the sum of an organism's use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment |
| interspecific competition | occurs when the niches of two populations overlap |
| carrying capacity | the maximum population size a particular environment can sustain. |
| predation | one species kills and eats another, one benefits crocodiles, antelope |
| parasitism | the host plants or animals are victimized by parasites or pathogens, heartworms and dogs |
| competition | neither species benefit, squirrels and black bears |
| herbivory | one benefits, caterpillars and leaves |
| predator | one who kills |
| prey | the one that's eaten |
| coevolution | something that plants and herbivores undergo |
| coevolution | when changes in at least two species' genetic compositions reciprocally affect each other's evolution |
| trophic structure | pattern of feeding relationships consisting of several different levels |
| trophic structure | key factor in community dynamics |
| food chain | the sequence food transfer up the trophic levels |
| food chain | moves chemical nutrients and energy from producers up through the trophic levels in a community |
| producers | autotrophs, support all other trophic levels, phytoplankton, plant |
| consumers | heterotrophs |
| primary consumers | herbivores, grasshopper, zooplankton |
| secondary consumers | eat herbivores, mouse, herring |
| tertiary consumers | eat secondary consumers, snake, tuna |
| quaternary consumers | eat tertiary consumers, killer whales hawks |
| detritivores | derive their energy from detritus |
| detritus | dead material produced at all the trophic levels |
| decomposers | mainly prokaryotes and fungi |
| decomposition | secrete enzymes that digest molecules in organic materials and convert them into inorganic forms |
| food web | network of interconnecting food chains, more realistic |
| food web | consumers may eat more than one type of producer |
| food web | several species of consumers may feed on the same species of producer |
| heterotrophs | an organism that cannot fix carbon and uses organic carbon for growth |
| keystone species | is a species whose impact on its community is larger than its biomass or abundance |
| keystone species | occupies a niche that holds the rest of its community in place |
| keystone species | Pisaster sea stars, long-spined sea urchins |
| disturbances | are events that damage biological communities |
| disturbances | storms, fires, floods, droughts, overgrazing, or human activity |
| ecological succession | results from colonization by a variety of species, which are replace d by a succession of other species |
| invasive species | are organisms that have been introduced into non-native habitats by human actions |
| examples of invasive species | deliberate introduction of rabbits into Australia and cane toads into Australia |
| primary succession | begins in a virtually lifeless area with no soil |
| secondary succession | occurs when a disturbance destroys an existing community but leaves the soil intact |
| energy flow | moves through the components of an ecosystem |
| chemical cycling | is the transfer of materials within the ecosystem |
| biomass | the amount of living organic material in an ecosystem |
| abiotic reservoir | where a chemical accumulates or is stockpiled outside of living organisms |
| pathogens | disease- causing microscopic parasites that include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists |
| commensalism | a relation between individuals of two species in which one species obtains food or other benefits from the other without harming them |
| commensalism | Cattle egrets and livestock, Tigers and golden jackals |
| symbiotic relationship | are a special type of interaction between species |
| types of symbiotic relationship | Commensalism Parasitism Mutualism |
| resource partitioning | evolutionary change in species in response to selection pressures generated by interspecific competition. |
Created by:
lcsimone
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