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Ecology Vocab
HW #8
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abiotic | Non-living |
| Age structure | number of males and females of each age in a population |
| Biotic | living |
| Biotic potential | The maximum rate at which a population could increase under ideal conditions |
| Birth rate | the number of births in a population in a certain amount of time |
| Boom-and-bust cycle | a period of strong economic growth followed by a period of sharp decline |
| Carrying capacity | Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support |
| Clumped distribution | individuals are found in groups or patches within the habitat |
| Community | All the different populations that live together in an area |
| Competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
| Death rate | The number of deaths in a population in a certain amount of time |
| Demographic transition | change in a population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates |
| Demography | The scientific study of population characteristics. |
| Density-dependent | Referring to any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density. |
| Density-independent | Referring to any characteristic that is not affected by population density. |
| Ecological footprint | the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources. |
| Ecology | Scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| Ecosystem | A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. |
| Emigration | Migration from a location |
| Environmental resistance | All the limiting factors that act together to limit the growth of a population. |
| Exponential growth | Growth pattern in which the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate |
| Growth rate | Rate of increase or decrease of a population |
| Host | An organism on which a parasite lives. |
| Immigration | Migration to a new location |
| Interspecific competition | competition between members of different species |
| J-curve | curve showing J-shaped or exponential growth |
| Life table | an age-specific summary of the survival pattern of a population |
| Logistic population growth | population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity |
| Parasite | An organism that feeds on a living host |
| Population | A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area |
| Population cycle | regularly recurring, cyclic changes in population size |
| Predator | an animal that naturally preys on others. |
| Prey | An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism |
| Random distribution | a phenomenon that is neither clustered nor dispersed |
| Replacement-level fertility (RLF) | the average number of offspring per female that is required to maintain a stable population |
| Scramble competition | a free-for-all scramble for limited resources among individuals of the same species |
| S-curve | a curve that depicts logistic growth |
| Survivorship curve | Graph showing the number of survivors in different age groups for a particular species. |
| Uniform distribution | Distribution where populations are spaced evenly |
| Aggressive mimicry | a technique used by some animals to lure prey to them by mimicking something else |
| Biome | A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms |
| Camouflage | the act of concealing the identity of something by modifying its appearance |
| Climax community | A stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species over time |
| Coevolution | Process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other |
| Commensalism | A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
| Community | All the different populations that live together in an area |
| Competitive exclusion principle | Ecological rule that states that no two species can occupy the same exact niche in the same habitat at the same time |
| Disturbance | an event, caused by physical, chemical, or biological agents, resulting in changes in population size or community composition |
| Ecological niche | the sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment |
| Herbivore | A consumer that eats only plants. |
| Intertidal zone | Portion of the shoreline that lies between the high and low tide lines |
| Interspecific competition | competition between members of different species |
| Intraspecific competition | competition between members of the same species |
| Invasive species | plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native |
| Keystone species | A species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem |
| Mimicry | Ability of an animal to look like another more harmful animal |
| Mutualism | A relationship between two species in which both species benefit |
| Pioneer | a person who goes before others and opens the way for them to follow |
| Primary succession | An ecological succession that begins in an area where no biotic community previously existed |
| 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 coexisting species |
| Secondary succession | Succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil |
| Startle coloration | a form of mimicry in which a color pattern (in many cases resembling large eyes) can be displayed suddenly by a prey organism when approached by a predator. |
| Subclimax | A community in which succession is stopped before the climax community is reached |
| Succession | A series of predictable and orderly changes within an ecosystem over time. |
| Symbiosis | A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. |
| Warning coloration | conspicuous coloration or markings of an animal serving to warn off predators |
| Acid Deposition | caused by sulfuric and nitric acids resulting in lowered pH of surface waters |
| Autotroph | An organism that makes its own food |
| Biodegradable | Able to be broken down naturally |
| Biogeochemical Cycle | the exchange of matter through the biosphere |
| Biological Magnification | increasing concentration of a harmful substance in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web |
| Biomass | total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level |
| Carnivore | A consumer that eats only animals. |
| Consumer | An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| Decomposer | An organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms |
| Deforestation | Destruction of forests |
| Detritus Feeder | animal that feeds on tiny bits of decaying plants and animals |
| Energy Pyramid | A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| Food Chain | series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten |
| Food Web | a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains. |
| Fossil Fuel | a natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. |
| Global Warming | A gradual increase in average global temperature |
| Greenhouse Effect | warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere |
| Greenhouse Gas | a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation |
| Herbivore | organism that obtains energy by eating only plants |
| Heterotroph | organism that obtains energy from the foods it consumes |
| Hydrologic cycle | the continuous circulation of water between the atmosphere, oceans, and earth |
| Net Primary Productivity | The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy producers respire |
| Nutrient cycle | the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter |
| Omnivore | A consumer that eats both plants and animals |
| Primary consumer | An organism that eats producers |
| Producer | An organism that can make its own food. |
| Reservoir | a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply. |
| Secondary consumer | An organism that eats primary consumers |
| Tertiary consumer | An organism that eats secondary consumers |
| Trophic level | Each step in a food chain or food web |
| Aphotic zone | permanently dark layer of the oceans below the photic zone |
| Chaparral | vegetation consisting chiefly of tangled shrubs and thorny bushes. |
| Climate | The average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time |
| Coral reef | The most diverse marine biome on Earth, found in warm, shallow waters beyond the shoreline. |
| Desert | An extremely dry area with little water and few plants |
| El Nino | A warm ocean current that flows along the coast of Peru every seven to fourteen years |
| Estuary | the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream. |
| Eutrophic lake | A lake that has a high rate of biological productivity supported by a high rate of nutrient cycling. |
| Grassland | A biome where grasses are the main plant life |
| Gyre | the large, circular surface-current pattern found in each ocean |
| Hydrothermal vent community | a community of unusual organisms, living in the deep oceans near hydrothermal vents, that depends on the chemosynthetic activities of sulfur bacteria |
| Intertidal zone | the narrow band of coastline between the levels of high tide and low tide |
| La Nina | A climate event in the eastern Pacific Ocean in which surface waters are colder than normal. |
| Limnetic zone | In a lake, the well-lit, open surface waters farther from shore. |
| Littoral zone | the shallow zone of soil and water in lakes and ponds where most algae and emergent plants grow |
| Nearshore zone | lies between the low-tide shoreline and the line where waves break at low tide |
| Northern coniferous forest | largest terrestrial biome on earth |
| Oligotrophic lake | Lake with a low supply of plant nutrients. |
| Ozone layer | Protective layer in the atmosphere that shields earth from UV radiation. |
| Pelagic | Describing organisms that live in the water column away from the ocean bottom. |
| Permafrost | permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the surface of the ground |
| Photic zone | Portion of the marine biome that is shallow enough for sunlight to penetrate. |
| Phytoplankton | photosynthetic algae found near the surface of the ocean |
| Plankton | Tiny algae and animals that float in water and are carried by waves and currents. |
| Prairie | a large, level area of grassland with few or no trees |
| Profundal zone | zone in a freshwater habitat that is below the limits of effective light penetration |
| Rain shadow | result of a process by which dry areas develop on the leeward sides of mountain ranges |
| Savanna | a grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions, with few trees. |
| Taiga | Biome in which the winters are cold but summers are mild enough to allow the ground to thaw |
| Temperate deciduous forest | forest in a temperate region, characterized by trees that drop their leaves annually |
| Temperate rainforest | a coastal biome typified by moderate temperatures and high precipitation |
| Tropical deciduous forest | a biome with pronounced wet and dry seasons and plants that shed their leaves during the dry season to minimize water loss |
| Tropical rainforest | a broadleaf evergreen forest found in wet and hot regions near the equator. |
| Tundra | An extremely cold, dry biome. |
| Upwelling | The movement of deep, cold, and nutrient-rich water to the surface |
| Weather | The condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place. |
| Zooplankton | small free-floating animals that form part of plankton |
| Biocapacity | the amount of biologically productive land and sea available to us |
| Biodiversity | the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. |
| Biosphere reserves | protected areas consisting of zones that vary in the amount of permissible human impact |
| Conservation biology | application of biology to counter the loss of biodiversity |
| Core reserves | natural areas protected from most human uses except low-impact recreation |
| Critically endangered species | a species that faces an extreme risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future |
| Ecological footprint | A measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land |
| Ecosystem services | The process by which natural environments provide life-supporting resources |
| Endangered species | A species in danger of becoming extinct in the near future |
| Habitat fragmentation | Breakup of a habitat into smaller pieces, usually as a result of human activities. |
| Mass extinction | A large extinction of species in a relatively short period of time |
| Minimum viable population | The smallest population size at which a species is able to sustain its numbers and survive. |
| No-till | refers to when farmers plant seeds without using a plow to turn the soil. |
| Overexploitation | excessive use of species that have economic value |
| Sustainable development | Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. |
| Threatened species | A species that could become endangered in the near future |
| Vulnerable species | naturally rare or have been locally depleted by human activities to a level that puts them at risk |
| Wildlife corridors | strips of undeveloped habitat that connect preserved areas |
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zoe_szeto17
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