Ch 3 Vocab

Question 0

Species

Answer 0

The entirety of a population that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.

Question 1

Ecology

Answer 1

The study of all processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions between living things and their environment.

Question 2

Population

Answer 2

A certain number of individuals that make up the interbreeding, reproducing group.

Question 3

Biotic community

Answer 3

(living) is the grouping

or assemblage of plants, animals, and microbes.

Question 4

Abiotic

Answer 4

Is the nonliving, chemical, and physical factors such as the amount of water or moisture present, the climate, the salinity, or the type of soil in the area.

Question 5

Ecosystems

Answer 5

A grouping of plants, animals, and microbes occupying an explicit unit of space and interacting with each other and their environment.

Question 6

Ecotone

Answer 6

A transitional area between two adjacent ecosystems that has characteristics of both.

Question 7

Landscapes

Answer 7

A group of interacting ecosystems.

Question 8

Biomes

Answer 8

Are similar or related ecosystems or landscapes that are often grouped together.

Question 9

Biosphere

Answer 9

All species and physical factors on Earth functioning as one unified ecosystem.

Question 10

Conditions

Answer 10

A re abiotic factors that vary in space and time but are not used up or made unavailable to other species.

Question 11

Resources

Answer 11

Are any factors (biotic or abiotic) that are consumed by organisms.

Question 12

Optimum

Answer 12

A certain level at which the organisms do best.

Question 13

Range of tolerance

Answer 13

The entire span that allows any growth at all.

Question 14

Limits of tolerance

Answer 14

The points at the high and low ends of the range of tolerance

Question 15

Zones of stress

Answer 15

Region between the optimal range and the high or low limits of tolerance.

Question 16

Synergistic affects

Answer 16

Defined as two or more factors interacting in a way that causes an effect much greater than one would anticipate from the effects of each of the two acting separately.

Question 17

Habitat

Answer 17

Refers to the kind of place where a species is biologically adapted to live.

Question 18

Ecological niche

Answer 18

Refers to what the animal feeds on, where it feeds, when it feeds, where it finds shelter, where it nests, and how it responds to abiotic factors.

Question 19

Matter

Answer 19

Anything that has mass and occupies space.

Question 20

Atoms

Answer 20

The basic building blocks of all matter.

Question 21

Molecule

Answer 21

Consists of two or more atoms bonded together in a specific way.

Question 22

Compounds

Answer 22

Consists of two or more different kinds of atoms bonded together.

Question 23

Mineral

Answer 23

Is any hard, crystalline, inorganic material of a given chemical composition.

Question 24

Organic

Answer 24

The chemical compounds making up the tissues of living organisms.

Question 25

Energy

Answer 25

Anything that has the ability to move matter, has no mass and does not occupy space.

Question 26

Calorie

Answer 26

The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram (1 mL) of water 1 degree Celsius.

Question 27

Kinetic energy

Answer 27

Energy in action or motion.

Question 28

Potential energy

Answer 28

energy in storage.

Question 29

Chemical energy

Answer 29

the potential energy contained in such chemicals and fuels.

Question 30

Temperature

Answer 30

measures the molecular motion in a substance caused by the kinetic energy present in it.

Question 31

Entropy

Answer 31

is a measure of the degree of disorder in a

system.

Question 32

Heat energy

Answer 32

the lowest (most disordered) form of energy.

Question 33

Oxidation

Answer 33

breakdown of molecules.

Question 34

Cellulose

Answer 34

material of plant cell walls

Question 35

Fermentation

Answer 35

anaerobic process

Question 36

Biogeochemical cycles

Answer 36

circular pathways of elements involving biological, geological, and chemical processes

Question 37

Eutrophication

Answer 37

is a water pollution problem when there is too much phosphorus in the bodies of water.

Question 38

Nitrogen fixation

Answer 38

a number of bacteria and cyano- bacteria that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a reactive form of nitrogen.

Question 39

Nitrifying bacteria

Answer 39

a group of soil bacteria that oxidizes the ammonia to nitrate in a chemosynthetic

Question 40

Denitrification

Answer 40

is a microbial process that occurs in soils and sediment depleted of oxygen which converts nitrates to nitrogen gas and released back into the atmosphere.