Upgrade to remove ads
Busy. Please wait.
Log in with Clever
or

show password
Forgot Password?

Don't have an account?  Sign up 
Sign up using Clever
or

Username is available taken
show password


Make sure to remember your password. If you forget it there is no way for StudyStack to send you a reset link. You would need to create a new account.
Your email address is only used to allow you to reset your password. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


Already a StudyStack user? Log In

Reset Password
Enter the associated with your account, and we'll email you a link to reset your password.

Population and Community Ecology - AP Environmental Science, Chapter 6

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
        Help!  

Term
Definition
Population ecology   The study of factors that cause populations to increase or decrease  
🗑
Population size   The number of individuals within a defined area at a given time  
🗑
Population density   The number of individuals per unit of area (or volume) at a given time (clustered or dispersed)  
🗑
Population distribution   A description of how individuals are distributed with respect to each other (random, uniform, or clumped)  
🗑
Sex ratio   The ratio of males to females  
🗑
Age structure   How many individuals fit into particular age categories  
🗑
Density-dependent factors   Factors that influence an individual's probability of survival/reproduction in a manner that depends on the size of the population  
🗑
Limiting resource   A resource that a population cannot live without that occurs in quantities lower than what is required for the population to increase in size  
🗑
Carrying capacity (K)   The limit of how many individuals in a population the food supply can sustain  
🗑
Density-independent factors   Factors that have the same effect on an individual's probability of survival/reproduction at any population size  
🗑
Growth rate   The number of offspring an individual can produce in a given time period, minus the deaths of the individual or its offspring in the same time period  
🗑
Intrinsic growth rate   The maximum potential for growth in a population under ideal conditions and with unlimited resources  
🗑
Exponential growth model   A growth model that estimates a population's future size after a period of time, based on the intrinsic growth rate and the number of reproducing individuals currently in the population  
🗑
J-shaped curve   The curve of an exponential growth model when graphed  
🗑
Logistic growth model   A growth model that describes a population whose growth is initially exponential, but slows as the population approaches the carrying capacity  
🗑
S-shaped curve   The shape of the logistic growth model when graphed  
🗑
Overshoot   When a population becomes larger than the environment's carrying capacity  
🗑
Die-off   A rapid decline in population due to health  
🗑
K-selected species   Species with low intrinsic growth rates that cause the population to increase slowly until it reaches carrying capacity  
🗑
r-selected species   Species that have high intrinsic growth rates, which often leads to population overshoots and die-offs  
🗑
Survivorship curves   Graphs that represent the patterns of species survival as a function of age  
🗑
Corridors   Strips of natural habitat that connect separated populations  
🗑
Metapopulations   Groups of spacially distinct populations that are connected by occasional movements of individuals between them  
🗑
Community ecology   The study of interactions between species  
🗑
Competition   The struggle of species to obtain a limiting resource  
🗑
Competitive exclusion principle   Two species competing for the same limiting resource cannot coexist  
🗑
Resource partitioning   A situation in which two species divide a resource based on differences in their behavior or morphology  
🗑
Predation   The use if one species as a resource by another species  
🗑
True predators   Predators that kill their prey and consume it  
🗑
Herbivores   Predators that consume plants as prey  
🗑
Parasites   Predators that live on or in the organism they consume  
🗑
Parasitoids   Organisms that lay eggs inside other organisms  
🗑
Pathogens   Illness-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites  
🗑
Mutualism   An interaction between species that helps both  
🗑
Commensalism   An interaction between species that helps one and doesn't affect the other  
🗑
Symbiotic relationship   A relationship between two species that live in close association with each other  
🗑
Keystone species   Species that are far more important to their communities than their relative abundance may suggest  
🗑
Predator-mediated competition   Competition in which a predator is instrumental in reducing the abundance of a superior competitor, allowing inferior competitors to exist  
🗑
Ecosystem engineers   Keystone species that create of maintain a habitat for other species  
🗑
Ecological succession   The replacement of one group or species by another over time  
🗑
Primary succession   Ecological succession occurring on surfaces that are initially devoid of soil - areas are colonized by organisms such as algae, lichens, and moss, which eventually die and mix with eroded rock to help form soil  
🗑
Secondary succession   The succession of plant life that occurs in areas that have been disturbed but haven't lost their soil  
🗑
Pioneer species   A species that can colonize new areas rapidly  
🗑


   

Review the information in the table. When you are ready to quiz yourself you can hide individual columns or the entire table. Then you can click on the empty cells to reveal the answer. Try to recall what will be displayed before clicking the empty cell.
 
To hide a column, click on the column name.
 
To hide the entire table, click on the "Hide All" button.
 
You may also shuffle the rows of the table by clicking on the "Shuffle" button.
 
Or sort by any of the columns using the down arrow next to any column heading.
If you know all the data on any row, you can temporarily remove it by tapping the trash can to the right of the row.

 
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.

  Normal Size     Small Size show me how
Created by: emilyjane1221
Popular Earth Science sets