Chapter 15 Vocabulary Flashcards
Abiotic Factor**
Aspect of the environment that has never been alive (sunlight, minerals, temperature, moisture, ect.)
Biosphere
Highest level of organization in ecology that includes all the parts of Earth where life can be found and consists of all the world’s biomes, both terrestrial and aquatic.
Biotic Factor**
Living/once-living aspect of the environment (Ex: living organism or remains of dead organism).
Ecology**
Science of how living things interact with each other and their environment.
Age-sex Structure
Numbers of individuals of each sex and age/age group in a population.
Carrying Capacity**
Largest population size of a species that can be supported in an area without harming the environment.
Demographic Transition
Shift that occurred in some human populations (starting in 1700s) that included decrease in death rates, followed by a decrease in birth rates. All resulting in the population growth changin from slow to rapid to slow again.
Exponential Growth**
Pattern of population growth where a population starts out growing slowly but grows at an increasing rate as population size increases, so that the larger population becomes, the more quickly it grows.
Logistic Growth Population**
Pattern of population growth in which a population starts out growing slowly, increases it rate of growth, grows more rapidly, and then grows more slowly as the population size approaches the carrying capacity.
Population Density*
Average number of individuals in a population per unit of area (Ex: average number of individuals per square kilometer).
Population DistributionI*
Measure of how individuals in a population are spread out over the are they occupy.
Population Growth Rate*
Measure of how quickly a population changes in size over time.
Population Pyramid
Special bar graph that represents the numbers of individuals of each sex + age/age group in a population.
Commensalism**
Type of symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is not affected.
Community**
Biotic component of an ecosystem that consists of all the populations of all the species that live in the same area.
Competition**
Relationship between organisms that depend on the same resources; may be introspective (between member so fate same species) or interspcecifc (between members of different species).
Host**
Species that is harmed by a parasite in a parasitic relationship.
Keystone Species*
Predator species that plays a special role in it community because changes in it population affect the populations of many other species in the community.
Mutualism**
Type of symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship.
Parasite*
Species that benefits and harms a host in a parasitic relationship.
Parasitism**
Type of symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is harmed.
Predation*
Relationship between species in a community in which members of one species consume members of another species.
Predator**
Species that consumes the prey species in a predator-prey relationship.
Prey**
Species that is consumed by a predator species in a predator-prey relationship.
Symbiosis**
Close relationship between two species in a community in which at least one species benefits, while the other species may benefit, be harmed, or be unaffected; types of symbiosis include mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism.
Competitive Exclusion Principle
Law that two different species cannot occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time.
Ecosystem**
Unit of nature that consists of all the biotic and abiotic factors in an area of all the ways in which they interact.
Habitat*
Physical environment in which a species lives and to which it has adapted.
Niche*
Role that a particular species plays in its ecosystem, including all the ways that the species interacts with the biotic and abiotic factors in the ecosystem.
Aphotic Zone
Part of a body of water that is deeper than 200 meters where not enough sunlight penetrates to allow photosynthesis to take place.
Aquatic Biome
Water-based biome, or group of similar water-based ecosystem; any freshwater or marine biome.
Biome**
Group of similar ecosystems with the same general abiotic factors and primary produce sees, such as littoral zone in water or the tropical rainforest on land.
Climate**
Average weather in a place over a long period of time.
Freshwater Biome
Group of similar ecosystems that are based in fresh water, such as the littoral zone near the shore of a lake or the profundal zone at the bottom of the water.
Marine Biome
Group of similar, salt-water based ecosystems in the ocean, such as the intertidal zone along a coast or th benthic zone a t the bottom of the ocean.
Photic Zone
Top 200 meters of a body of water where enough sunlight penetrates to allow photosynthesis to take place.
Terrestrial Biome
Group of similar, land-based ecosystems, such as tropical rainforests, temperate grasslands, or tundras.
