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AP Bio Unit 8
ecology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the living and nonliving components of their environment |
| Population | a group of individuals of the same species living in an area |
| Community | a group of populations of different species in an area |
| Ecosystem | the community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which they interact |
| Biosphere | the global ecosystem, the sum of all the planet's ecosytem and landscapes |
| Climate | long-term prevailing weather conditions in an area |
| Microclimate | fine, localized patterns in climates |
| Abiotic factors | nonliving attributes |
| Biotic factors | living attributes |
| Climate change | a directional change to the global climate lasting 3 decades of more |
| Biomes | major life zones characterized by vegetation type terestial) or physical environment (aquatic) |
| Climograph | plots annual mean temperature & precipitation in a region |
| Disturbance | an event such as a storm, fire, or human activity that changes a community |
| Population ecology | the study of how biotic and abiotic factors influence the abundance, dispersion, and age structure of populations |
| Density | the number of individuals/unit area or volume |
| Dispersion | pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the population |
| Immigration | the influx of new individuals from other areas |
| Emigration | the movement of individuals out of a population |
| Clumped pattern of dispersion | individuals aggregate in patches |
| Uniform dispersion | individuals are evenly distributed |
| Random dispersion | the position of each individual is independent of other individuals |
| Demography | the study of biotic and abiotic factors of a population and how they change over time |
| Life table | age-specific summary of the survival and reproductive rates within a population |
| Survivorship curve | a graphic way of representing the data in a life table |
| Type I curve | low death rates during early and middle life and an higher death rates among older age groups |
| Type II curve | a constant death rate over the organism's life span |
| Type III curve | high death rates for the young and low death rates for survivors |
| Changes in population size = | births + immigrants - deaths - emigrants |
| Exponential population growth | population growth under idealized conditions |
| Intrinsic rate of increase | per capita rate at which an exponentially growing population increases in size at each instnat in time |
| Carrying capacity (k) | the maximum population size the environment can support |
| Logistic population growth model | per capita rate of population growth which approaches zero as population size reaches k |
| Life history | the traits that affect its schedule of reproduction and survivial |
| Semelparity | reproduce once and die |
| Iteroparity | produce offspring repeatedly |
| K-selection | selection for life history traits that are advantageous at high population densities |
| r-selection | selection for life history traits that maximise reproductive success at low population density |
| Study of population dynamics | the study of the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors that cause variation in population size |
| Metapopulations | groups of populations linked by imigration and emigration |
| Age structure | relative number of individuals of each age in a population |
| Biological community | an assemblage of populations of various species living close enough for potential interaction |
| Interspecific interactions | relationships between species in a community |
| Competiton | when species compete for a resource that limits survival and reproduction |
| Competitive exclusion | local elimination of a competing species due to strong competition |
| Ecological niche | the sum of an organism's use of abiotic and biotic resources; it can be thought of as an organism's ecological role |
| Resource partitioning | differentiation of ecological niches, enabling similar species to coexist in a community |
| Fundamental niche | the niche potentially occupied by that spceis |
| Realized niche | the niche actually occupied by that species |
| What causes differences between the fundamental niche from the realized niche? | competition |
| Exploitation | one species benefits by feeding on the other species |
| Parasitism | one organism, the parasite, derives nourishment from another organism, its host, which is harmed in the process |
| Endoparasites | parasites that live within the boyd of their host |
| Ectoparasites | parasites that live on the external surface of a host |
| Mutualism | common interspecific interaction that benefits both species |
| Commensalism | common interaction in which one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped |
| Species diversity | the variety of organisms that makeup the community |
| Species richness | the number of different species in the community |
| Relative abundance | the proportion each species represents of all individuals in the community |
| Trophic structure | the feeding relationships between organisms in a community |
| Food chains | link trophic levels from producers to top carnivores |
| Trophic level | the position a organism occupies in a food chain |
| Food web | a group of food chains linked together forming complex trophic interactions |
| Dominant species | those that are most abundant or have the highest biomass |
| Keystone species | exert strong control on a community by their ecological roles, or niches |
| Disturbance | an event that changes a community, removes organisms from it, and alters resources availability |
| Ecological succession | the sequence of changes in community composition following a disturbance |
| Primary succession | occurs where no soil exists when succession begins |
| Secondary succession | begins in an area where soil remains after a disturbance |
| Evapotranspiration | the evaporation of water from soil plus transpiration of water from plants |
| Transpiration | movement of water from the soil into the plant where it is lost to the atmosphere |
| Zoonotic pathogens | those transferred to humans from other animals |
| Vector | living organisms that can transmit infectious pathogens between different species |
| Ecosystem | all the organisms living in a given area and the abiotic factors with which they interact |
| First Law of Thermodynamics | energy is neither created nor destroyed, simply transferred or transformed |
| Second Law of Thermodynamics | every exchange of energy increases the entropy of the universe |
| Law of Conservation of Mass | matter cannot be created nor destroyed |
| Detrivores/decomposers | heterotrophs that derive their energy from detrius or nonliving organic matter |
| Secondary production | the amount of chemical energy in food converted to new biomass during a given period of time |
| What percent of the energy from one trophic level is converted to the next level? | 10% |
| Trophic efficiency | the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next |
| Biogeochemical cycles | nutrient cycles which contain both biotic and abiotic components |
| What process converts atmospheric nitrogen gas into organic nitrogen? | nitrogen fixation |
| What process converts nitrates into ammonia? | ammonification |
| What process converts ammonia into nitrates? | nitrification |
| What process converts organic nitrogen into atmospheric nitrogen gas? | denitrification |
| Introduced species | species that humans move from native locations to new geographic regions, intentionally/accidentally |
| Overharvesting | human harvesting of organisms at rates exceeding the ability of their populations to rebound |
| Global change | alterations to climate, atmospheric chemsitry, and broad ecological systems that reduce the capacity of Earth to support life |
| Biological magnification | concentrates toxins at higher trophic levels, where biomass is lower |
| The greenhosue effect | greenhouse gases reflect infrared radiation back towards Earth which helps keep Earth at a habitable temperature |
| What two abiotic factors are most important in determinging the distribution of the biome? | temperature and precipitation |
| The Green World Hypothesis | predators keep our world green |
| G. F. Gause's competitive exclusion principle | two species in the same place that are competing for the same resource cannot coexist permanently |
| In a Shannon diversity index, higher number = | more diverse community |
| Where does energy enter most ecosystems? | as sunlight |
| How is sunlight converted to chemical energy and then passed through the ecosystem? | by autotrophs who then pass chemical energy on to heterotrophs as they are consumed |
| Energy _____ through an ecosystem | flows |
| Matter is ______ in an ecosystem | recycled |
| Secondary consumers | carnivores that eat herbivores |
| Tertiary consumers | carnivores that eat other carnivores |
| Equation for net primary production | net primary production = gross primary production - energy used by primary producers |
| Which ecosystem has a greater biomass/unit area a forest or prairie? | the forest because grasses and herbs decompose more quickly than trees do |
| What limits primary productivity in aquatic ecosystems? | light, nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) |
| Eutrophication | a process by which nutrients, particulalry phosphates and ntirogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae/cyanobacteria |
| The greenhouse effect | the warming of earth due to the atmospheric accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases which absorb reflected infrared radiation and reradiate some of it back towards Earth |
| What three modes of communication are used by the fruit fly in courtship? | olfactory communication, tactile communication, and auditory communication |
| Waggle dance | a dance that communicates to the follower bees the direction and distance of the food source in relation to the hive and sun. |
| Altruism | a behavior that reduces an animal's individual fitness but increases the fitness of other individuals in the population |
| Kin selection | the relatives who benefit from altruistic behavior of another individual have greater reproductive success |
| Reciprocal altruism | individuals are unrelated but the altruistic individual gets some benefit from acting altruistically toward the other |
| What are 6 abiotic factors that affect distribution of organisms? | temperature, water, oxygen, salinity, sunlight, soil |
| What are 5 mechanisms of density-dependent population regulation? | competition for resources, disease, predation, territoriality, toxic wastes |
| What macromolecules are made from nitrogen? | amino acids and nucleic acids |
| Why do organisms need the carbon dioxide cycle? | for photosynthesis and cellular respiration |
| What molecules are made from phosphorus? | ATP, phospholipids, nucleic acids |
Created by:
theshan