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Ecosystem Test Vocab
SJCC Environmental Science Ecosystem Test Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | The study of how species interact with each other and with their environment |
| Habitat | The physical environment where an organism lives |
| Niche | The role an organism plays in its environment |
| Fundamental Niche | The full range of the habitat where a species can exist and reproduce without competition from other species |
| Realized Niche | Niche in practice, including competition |
| Competition | Species vie for scarce environmental resources, including food, water, space, and light. |
| Principle of Competitive Exclusion | A species in direct competition with each other cannot coexist |
| Intraspecific | Same species |
| Interspecific | Different species |
| Territorial Aggression | An individual stakes and defends its territory against other individuals of the same species |
| Symbiosis | Species interact in ways that are beneficial to one or both |
| Mutualism | Both partners benefit |
| Commensalism | One partner benefits without affecting the other |
| Parasitism | One partner benefits while the other is harmed |
| Predation | One organism, the predator, eats another organism, the prey |
| Keystone Species | A species that plays a crucial role in an ecosystem or whose influence is much greater than might be expected given its abundance |
| Biodiversity | The variety of life forms (richness or variety of a species) |
| Habitat Diversity | Also called ecosystem diversity; Refers to the variety of habitat types in an ecosystem and the biologic richness of those habitats |
| Genetic Diversity | Refers to the amount of variability or heterogeneity that is available among the DNA of individuals within a population or species |
| Species Diversity | Encompasses the concepts of species richness and evenness |
| Species Richness | Refers to the number of species in a community |
| Species Evenness | Refers to the relative abundance of individuals within each species |
| Divergent Evolution | Individuals of a species change over time in a way that makes them more different from one another |
| Adaptive Radiation | The process of one species evolving into a number of new species |
| Convergent Evolution | Individuals of different species change over time in a way that makes them more similar to one another |
| Extinction | The disappearance of a species from the Earth |
| Mass Extinction | Many species become extinct in a geologically short period of time |
| Endangered Species | A species that is in imminent danger of extinction |
| Megadiversity Hot Spot | Clusters of biodiversity in certain highly productive areas of the earth |
| r-strategist | Organisms that produce a large number of offspring, only some of which survive- small body size, short life span, large number of eggs or offspring |
| k-strategist | Larger organisms with longer lifespans-Small number of organisms less often, devote energy to parental care of offspring, vulnerable to extinction because of low reproductive rate |
| Specialist | An organism with a narrow niche and is completely dependent upon the availability of a specific habitat or available resource |
| Generalist | An organism that readily adjusts to changes in its habitat or available resources |
| Poaching | The illegal harvesting of wild species for commercial exploitation |
| Exotic Species | An organism that is not a native of a particular ecosystem; alien |
| Endemic Species | An organism that is the native species of a particular ecosystem |
| Habitat Fragmentation | Large tracts of natural area that are broken up into smaller patches by roads or other developments |
| Metabolism | The set of chemical reactions through which an organism derives food energy |
| Autotrophs | Make their own food |
| Heterotrophs | Eat organisms for food |
| Producers | Autotrophs |
| Consumers | Heterotrophs |
| Primary Consumers | Eat producers |
| Herbivores | Eat plants |
| Secondary Consumers | Eat primary consumers and producers |
| Tertiary Consumers | Eat primary consumers, secondary consumers, and producers |
| Carnivores | Eat meat |
| Omivores | Eat plants and animals |
| Detritivores | Consumers that eat detritus |
| Decomposer (Saprotroph) | Breakdown dead organic material into simple carbohydrates, mineral salts, and carbon dioxide |
| Food chain | A linear sequence of organisms that exist on successive trophic levels within a natural community, through which energy is transferred by feeding. |
| Trophic Level | Each level of a food chain |
| Food Web | A non-linear network of feeding between organisms that includes many food chains, and hence multiple organisms on each trophic level. |
| Biomass | A quantitative measure of the amount of organic matter in an ecosystem or part of an ecosystem. |
| Phytomass | Plant matter |
| Zoomass | Animal matter |
| Ecological Pyramid | A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter, or numbers of organisms within each trophic level in a food chain or food web |
| Biologic Productivity | A measure of the rate at which biomass is produced |
| Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) | The amount of biomass produced by photosynthesis in a given area during a specific amount of time |
| Net Primary Productivity (NPP) | The amount of organic material available for consumption in a given area. GPP minus losses due to plant respiration. |
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