Chapter 1 - Nature of Ecology

Question 1

the scientific study of the relationships between organisms and their environment

Answer 1

ecology

Question 2

hailed as a framework for understanding the relationship of humans to their environment

Answer 2

ecology

Question 3

the study of all those complex interrelationships referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the struggle for existence

Answer 3

ecology

Question 4

the study of the complex web of interactions between organisms and their environment at all levels of organization—from the individual organism to the biosphere

Answer 4

ecology

Question 5

includes the physical and chemical conditions as well as the biological or living components of an organism’s surroundings

Answer 5

Environment

Question 6

include interactions with the physical world as well as with members of the same and other species

Answer 6

relationships

Question 7

activism with a stated aim of protecting the natural environment, particularly from the negative impacts of human activities

Answer 7

Environmentalism

Question 8

form of environmentalism

Answer 8

public education programs, advocacy, legislation, and treaties

Question 9

a cornerstone of the science of ecology

Answer 9

Darwin’s theory of natural selection

Question 10

Ultimate goal of all living organisms

Answer 10

to pass their genes on to successive generations

Question 11

consists of two basic interacting components: the living, or biotic, and the nonliving (physical and chemical), or abiotic

Answer 11

Ecosystem

Question 12

the various kinds of organisms that inhabit our forest

Answer 12

Populations

Question 13

(in ecology) is a group of individuals of the same species that occupy a given area

Answer 13

Populations

Question 14

all populations of different species living and interacting within an ecosystem

Answer 14

Community

Question 15

an area of land (or water) composed of a patchwork of communities and ecosystems

Answer 15

landscape

Question 16

the broad-scale regions dominated by similar types of ecosystems, such as tropical rain forests, grasslands, and deserts

Answer 16

Biomes

Question 17

the highest level of organization of ecological systems; the thin layer surrounding the Earth that supports all of life

Answer 17

Biosphere

Question 18

abstract, simplified representations of real systems; allow us to predict some behavior or response using a set of explicit assumptions, and as with hypotheses, these predictions should be testable through further observation or experiments

Answer 18

Models