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Chapter 4
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the study of how organisms interact with one another and with their environments |
| species | a group of individuals that interbreed and produce fertile offspring, |
| population | the members of a species that live in the same area |
| community | all of the population in a particular area |
| ecosystem | all living things and their physical environments within a particular area |
| biosphere | the Earth and all of its organisms and environments |
| biotic factor | any part of an ecosystem that is living or used to be living |
| abiotic factors | any part of an ecosystem that has never been living |
| habitat | the specific environment in which an organism lives, |
| resource | anything an organism needs; includes nutrition, shelter, mates, and breeding sites, |
| population size | the number of individual organisms present in a population at a given time |
| Population Density | the number of individuals in a population per unit of area |
| Population distribution | how organisms are arranged within an area |
| Age structure | the relative number of organisms of each age within a population |
| Age structure diagrams | a chart that shows the age distribution of a population |
| sex ratio | the proportion of males to females in a population |
| survivor ship curves | a graph showing the likelihood of survival within a group or population by age |
| Immigration | the movement of individuals to a given area |
| Emigration | the movement of individuals away from a given area |
| Migration | the seasonal movement of organisms into and. out of an area, |
| exponetial growth | the pattern of population growth in which a population increases by a fixed percentage each year |
| Limiting Factors | a characteristic of the environment that restricts population growth, |
| Carrying capacity | the largest population a given environment can support |
| Logistic Growth | the pattern of population growth in which exponential growth is slowed and finally stopped by limiting factors |
| Density-dependent factor | a limiting factor whose influence changes with population density |
| Density-independent factor | a limiting factor whose influence is not affected by population density; includes catastrophic events |
| biotic potential | maximum ability to produce offspring in ideal condition |