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ecology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The place on earth where all life exists, 5 miles (8km) above and below Earth’s crust | The biosphere |
| The study of the interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment | Ecology |
| Species - population - community - ecosystem - Biome | levels of organization |
| A group of organisms that can breed and reproduce fertile offspring | species |
| A group of individuals that belong to the same species, and live in the same area | population |
| different populations that live together in an area | community |
| The living and the nonliving parts of the environment | Ecosystem |
| A group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar organisms | Biome |
| Biotic factors | living organisms |
| Abiotic factors | the nonliving factors of an ecosystem |
| Need energy to power life’s processes (growth, reproduction, and metabolic processes) | energy flow |
| make their own food | Producers |
| organisms that use sun's energy to make food | autotrophs |
| Capture light 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 | Photosynthesis |
| when organisms use chemical energy to produce food instead of light | chemosynthesis |
| must consume other organisms to acquire energy | consumers/heterotrophs |
| obtain energy by eating plants | herbivore |
| eat animals | carnivore |
| eats both plants and animals | omnivore |
| animals that consume the carcasses of other animals that have been killed by predators or died of other causes | scavengers |
| feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter = detritus | detritivores |
| breaks down organic matter | decomposers |
| series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten | food chain |
| a network of feeding relationships between organisms which links all the food chains in and ecosystem together | food web |
| each step in a food chain or food webs | trophic levels |
| three types of ecological pyramids | ecological pyramid |
| Shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web | energy pyramid |
| The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level | Biomass pyramid |
| shows the number of individual organism at each trophic level in an ecosystem | pyramid of numbers |
| 95% of most organism’s body are made up of | O,C,H,N |
| elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another | Biochemical cycle |
| all chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life | Nutrient |
| water moves between the ocean, atmosphere, and land | water cycle |
| water changes from liquid to gas | evaporation |
| evaporation from plant leaves | transpiration |
| gas to liquid | condensation |
| rain, snow, sleet, or hail | precipitation |
| the rate at which organic matter is created by producers | Primary productivity |
| a singe nutrient that either is scarce or cycles very slowly which limits the growth of organisms in an ecosystem | Limiting Nutrient |
| runoff from a fertilized field into an aquatic ecosystem can increase the number of producers (algae) | algal bloom |
| Other bacteria obtain energy by converting nitrates into nitrogen gas, which is released into the atmosphere | denitrification |
| all chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life | Nutrient |
| elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another | Biochemical cycle |
| occurs when organisms of same or different species attempt to use the same resources | competition |
| states that no 2 species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time. | competition exclusive principle |
| one organism captures and feeds (predator) on another organism (prey) | Predation |
| the organism that does the killing and eating | predator |
| the organism being eaten | prey |
| any relationship in which two species live closely together | symbiosis |
| both species benefit | mutualism |
| one member helped, the other is not affected | commensalism |
| one organism lives on or in another organism (host) and does harm to it | Parasitism |
| organisms job in an ecosystems | Niche |
| Place where organisms live | Habitat |
| Other bacteria obtain energy by converting nitrates into nitrogen gas, which is released into the atmosphere | Denitrification |
| - occurs when organisms of same or different species attempt to use the same resources - when population becomes crowded, organisms, compete with on another for food, water, space, and sun | competition |
| one organism captures and feeds (predator) on another organism (prey) | Predation |
| any relationship in which two species live closely together | symbiosis |
| series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time | land succession |
| occurs on newly exposed surfaces where no soil exists | primary succession |
| the first species to populate an area | pioneer species |
| succession that follows a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil faster than primary succession | secondary succession |
| disturbance causes this succession | Marine succession |
| Community that covers a large area that have similair soil, climate, animals, and plants | Biomes |
| The area inhabited by a population | Geographic Range |
| The number of individuals per unit area | Population density |
| area inhabited by a population | Range |
| Determines if the size of the population increases, decreases, or stays the same | Growth rate |
| the number of males and females of each age a population contains | Age structure |
| 1. number of births 2. number of deaths 3. number of individuals that enter or leave a population | 3 factors that affect population size |
| movement of individuals into an area | Immigration |
| movement of individuals out of an area | Emigration |
| when individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate due to ideal conditions and unlimited resources | Exponential growth |
| indicates that the population is undergoing exponential growth | j-shaped curve |
| Occurs when a population growth slows or stops following a period of exponential growth | Logistic Growth |
| the largest number of individuals of a population that a given environment can support | Carrying capacity |
| a factor that causes population growth to decrease | Limiting factor |
| Limiting factor that depends on population size | Density dependent factor |
| As wolf populations grow, they begin to kill more moose than are born. This causes the moose death rate to rise higher than its birthrate, so the moose population falls | Predator-prey relationships |
| Herbivores eat plants, so the amount of plants and herbivores cycle up and down | Herbivory |
| Overfishing of cod is causing a decrease in their population | Humans as predators |
| affect all population regardless of the population size | Density Independent factors |
| Population cannot keep growing exponentially because of limited resources | Patterns of population growth |
| Study of human population | Demography |
| Change in a population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates | Demographic transition |
| Farming a single drop over and over again for human consumption | Monoculture |
| Can be produced or replaced by a heathy ecosystem | Renewable resources |
| Cannot be produced or replaced within a reasonable amount of time | Nonrenewable resources |
| Using resources in a responsible way which accounts for human need when preserving the ecosystem that produces the natural resource | Sustainable development |
| healthy soil supports both agriculture and forestry | Soil resources |
| The healthy, nutrient rich soil that helps retain moisture yet allows water to drain | Top soil |
| Wearing away of topsoil by water and wind | Soil Erosion |
| Loss of forests | Deforestation |
| only harvesting mature trees and leaving younger trees | selective harvesting |
| Pollution enters water supplies from a single source | Can be a source pollution |
| Pollution enters from many smaller sources | Can be nonpoint source pollution |
| was used in the 1950's as a cheap and effective pesticide | DDT |
| increasing levels of pollutant as you go up the food chain | Biological magnification |
| wetlands help to purify water and filter out certain pollutants | Wetland protection |
| Helps to maintain our supply of fresh water | Conservation of water |
| a gray-brown haze formed by chemical reactions released from industries and car exhaust | smog |
| Burning fossil fuels release nitric and sulfuric acids into the air, these combine with water vapor and fall to the earth | Acid rain |
| The vast variety in all organisms in the biosphere and is important for medicine, agriculture and maintaining ecosystems | Biodiversity |
| variety of habitats, communities, and ecological processes on earth | Ecosystem diversity |
| The number of different species on earth | species diversity |
| All the different forms of genetic information carried by a particular species, or by all organisms on earth | Genetic diversity |
| zoo's and aquariums protect individual species | conserving individual species |
Created by:
claireholton
Popular Ecology sets