Chapter 19 Flashcards
What is ecology?
The study of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment.
What is a population?
Individuals of the same species that live together.
What is a community?
Groups of different species that live together in the same place.
What is an ecosystem?
A community and the nonliving factors it interacts with.
What is a biome?
Plants, animals, and microorganisms occur over wide geographic areas and have distinctive physical characteristics. The tundra and desert are examples.
What is the biosphere?
It includes all of the world’s biomes.
What is sex ratio and why is it important? Hint: which sex has more influence on the number of births?
The proportion of males and females in a population. The number of births is related to the number of females.
What is age distribution?
It’s the proportion of individuals in different age categories.
What is a niche?
An organism’s biological role. In other words, what it does in the environment. Bees are pollinators for example.
What is a habitat?
Where an organism lives.
What is competition? What is the difference between interspecific and intraspecific competition?
Organisms compete for the same resources. Interspecific competition is between two different species. Intraspecific occurs within one species.
Inter= human and bears competing for salmon.
Intra= bears fighting for mates.
What is coevolution? Hint: plants and animal pollinators, predator-prey interactions, and symbiotic relationships.
The adaptation of a species to the other organisms in its community.
What is symbiosis?
It refers to two or more kinds of organisms living together and interacting.
What is mutualism?
All parties in the relationship benefit.
What is commensalism?
Benefits one species but has no impact on the other.
