Question | Answer |
Ecology | The study of how organisms with one another and with their nonliving environment. The study of connections in nature. |
Organism | Any form of life |
Species | groups of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, behavior, chemistry, and genetic makeup. |
Population | A group of interacting individuals of the same species occupying a specific area. |
Genetic Diversity | Difference in genetic makeup. |
Habitat | The place where a population lives (can be as large as the ocean or as small as the intestines of a termite). |
Distribution (range) | The area over which we can find a species (Some tropical plants have a very small range while animals like grizzlies tend to have large ranges). |
Biological community | Consists of all the populations of different species that live and interact in a specific area. |
Ecosystem | A community where populations of different species interact with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy. |
Biosphere | The global ecosystem where all life is interconnected. |
Atmosphere | A thin membrane of air around the planet. |
Troposphere | inner part of the atmosphere. It extends about 17km above sea level. This layer contains most of earth’s air, mostly oxygen (21%) and nitrogen (78%). |
Stratosphere | Outer part of the atmosphere. It extends from about 17km to 48km above sea level. Keeps out harmful UV radiation. |
Hydrosphere | All of earth’s water. It’s found as a liquid (water), a solid (ice), and a gas (steam). |
Lithosphere | The earth’s crust and upper mantle |
Biomes | Large regions with distinct climates and specific species adapted to them. |
Aquatic life zones | different ecosystems found in different types of water (ocean verse a lake). |
Abiotic | Nonliving components such as water, air, nutrients, and solar energy. |
Biotic | Consists of living components such as producers, consumers, and decomposers. |
Limiting factor | A certain factor like nitrogen and phosphorous that has a great effect on an environment. |
Producers (autotrophs) – | Make their own food from compounds and energy obtained from their environment. Most producers capture sunlight to produce carbohydrates. |
Photosynthesis | The act of capturing sunlight to produce energy. |
Consumers (heterotrophs) | Obtain energy from consuming other organisms or their remains. |
Primary Consumers (herbivores) | – Eat producers (deer). |
Secondary consumers (carnivores) | Feed on primary consumers (fox). |
Omnivores | eat both plants and animals (bear). |
Decomposers | are specialized organism that recycles nutrients in ecosystems. Breakdown dead material (Bacteria). |
Detritivores | Feed on the dead bodies or waste of other organisms (maggots) |
Aerobic respiration | When an organism uses the chemical energy stored in glucose and other organic compounds to fuel their life processes. Need oxygen to convert organic nutrients back into carbon dioxide and water |
Anaerobic respiration (fermentation) | When an organism uses the chemical energy stored in glucose and other organic compounds to fuel their life processes in the absence of oxygen. The byproducts of this are methane, ethyl alcohol, acetic acid, hydrogen sulfide. |
Food chain | A sequence of organisms, each of which is a source of food for the next. |
Trophic level | Feeding level |
Biomass | the weight of all organisms in a trophic level. |
Gross Primary Productivity | The rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass. |
Net primary productivity | The rate at which producers use photosynthesis to store energy minus the rate at which they use some of this stored energy. |
O horizon | The surface litter layer. |
A horizon | The topsoil layer. A porous mixture of partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and animals (humus). |
B horizon | Subsoil. |
C horizon | Parent material. |
Leaching | When water moving downwards through soil (infiltration) takes minerals down with it. |
Soil texture | Different soils are measured by the amount of sand, clay and silt in it |
Weather | is an area’s temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere over hours or days. |
Elevation | distance above sea level |
Latitude | distance from the equator |
Average temperature | factor determining climate |
Average precipitation | factor determining climate |
Coriolis effect | a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed from a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with anti clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the rig |
Prevailing winds | major surface winds that blow almost continuously and distribute air, moisture, and dust over the earth’s surface |
Greenhouse gases | gases in the earth’s lower atmosphere (troposphere) that causes the greenhouse effect. Examples include carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide |
Greenhouse effect | wavelength infrared radiation in the troposphere. If the atmospheric concentrations of these greenhouse gases increase and other natural processes do not remove them, the average temperature of the lower atmosphere will increase gradually. (Global warming |
Monsoons | periods of heavy rains and experienced on continents lying north and south of the warm oceans |
Microclimates | bricks, concrete, asphalt, and other building materials absorb and hold heat, and building block wind flow. Cars and the climate control systems of buildings release large quantities of heat and pollutants. As a result, cities tend to have more haze and s |