Question | Answer |
abiotic | the non-living component of an ecosystem |
adaptation | The adjustment or changes in behavior, physiology, and structure of an organism to become more suited to an environment. |
alleles | One of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome. |
biodiversity | The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. |
biotic | the living component of an ecosystem. |
carrying capacity | The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, symbolized as K. |
commensalism | A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed. |
community | All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction. |
competition | A symbiotic relationship between or among living things for resources, such as food, space, shelter, mate, ecological status, etc. |
ecological niche | The sum of a species’ use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment. |
ecosystem | All the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; one or more communities and the physical environment around them. |
exponential growth | Growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, represented by a J-shaped curve when population size is plotted over time. |
extinction | The state or process of ceasing or causing something to cease to exist. |
habitat | The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism. |
invasive species | A species, often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range. |
keystone species | A species that is not necessarily abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche. |
logistic growth | Population growth in which the growth rate decreases with increasing number of individuals until the population reaches the carrying capacity of the environment. |
mimicry | the resemblance of one organism to another but both are different species. |
mutualism | a symbiotic relationship between two organisms of different species in which both individuals benefit |
natural selection | The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. |
over exploitation | refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. The stock is drawn down below the size that is self sustaining. |
parasitism | A symbiotic relationship in which one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of another, the host, by living either within or on the host. |
population | all the members of a particular species living in the same area. |
predation | An interaction between species in which one species, the predator, eats the other, the prey. |
symbiosis | An ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact. |
variation | differences between two organisms in the same species. |