Term | Definition |
Habitat | can be describes as all of the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where an organism lives |
Ecological niche | composed of all of the physical, chemical, and biological factors that a species needs to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce |
Competitive Exclusion | states that when two species are competing for the same resources, one species will be better suited to the niche and the other species will be pushed into another niche or become extinct |
Ecological Equivalents | species that occupy similar niches but live in different geographical regions |
Competition | occurs when two organisms fight for the same limited resources |
Predation | process by which one organism captures and feeds upon another organism |
Symbiosis | close ecological relationship between two ore more organisms of different species that live in direct contact with one another |
Mutualism | interspecies interaction in which both organisms benefit from one another |
Commenalism | relationship between two organisms in which one receives an ecological benefit from another |
Parasitism | relationship similar to predation in that one organism benefits while the other is harmed |
Population density | a measurement of the number of individuals living in a defined space |
Population dispersion | the way in which individuals of a population are spread in an area of a volume |
Survivorship curve | a generalized diagram showing the number of surviving members over time from a measured set of births |
Immigration | movement of individuals into a population from another population |
Emigration | movement of individuals out of a population and into another population |
Exponential Growth | occurs when a population size increases dramatically over a period of time |
Logistic Growth | a population begins with a period of slow growth followed by a brief period of exponential growth before leveling off at a stable size |
Carrying Capacity | The ________ of an environment is the maximum number of individuals of a particular species that the environment can normally and consistently suppport |
Population Crash | a dramatic decline in the size of a population over a short period of time |
Limiting Factor | the factor that has the greatest effect in keeping down the size of a population |
Density-dependent limiting factor | limiting factors that are affected by the number of individuals in a given area |
Density-independent limiting factor | aspects of the environment that limit a population's growth regardless of the density of the population |
Succession | sequence of biotic changes that regenerate a damaged community or create a community in a previously uninhabited area |
Primary Sucession | establishment and development of an ecosystem in an area that was previously uninhabited |
Pioneer species | the first organisms that live in a previously uninhabited area |
Secondary succesion | the reestablishment of a damaged ecosystem in an area which the soil was left intact |