Chapter 3 Vocab Flashcards
Species
The entirety of a population that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
Ecology
The Study of all processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions between living things and their environment.
Population
A certain number of individuals that make up interbreeding, reproducing, group.
Biotic Community
The grouping or assemblage of plants, animals, and microbes.
Abiotic
The nonliving, chemical, and physical factors, water, moisture, and climate.
Ecosystems
A grouping of plants, animals, and microbes occupying an explicit unit of space and interacting with their environment.
Ecotone
A transitional area between two adjacent ecosystems that has characteristics of both.
Landscapes
A group of interacting ecosystems.
Biomes
Similar or related to ecosystems or landscapes that are often grouped together.(Only Terrestrial not Aquatic)
Biosphere
All species and physical factors of earth functioning as one unified ecosystem.
Conditions
Abiotic factors that vary in space and time but are not used up or made unavailable to other species.(Temperature, Wind, and Fire)
Resources
Any factors(biotic or abiotic) that are consumed by organisms.(Water, Nutrients, Oxygen)
Law of Limiting Factors
Every organism has an optimal range, zones of stress, and limits of tolerance.
Optimum
A certain level at which organisms do best
Range of Tolerance
The entire span that allows any growth at all
Limits of Tolerance
Point at the high and low ends of the range of tolerance.
Zones of Stree
Region between optimal range and high or low limits of tolerance
Limiting Factor
A factor that limits growth
Synergistic Effects(Synergism)
Two or more factors interacting in a way that causes an effect much greater than one would anticipate from effects of each of the two acting seperately.
Habitat
Refers to the kind of place where a species is biologily adapted to live.
Ecological Niche
What an animal feeds on, where it feeds, where it lives, where it nests, and how it responds to abiotic factors.
Matter
Anything that has mass and occupies space
Atoms
The basic building blocks of matter
The Law of Conservation of Matter
Atoms are neither created nor destroyed in any chemical reaction.
Molecule
Two or more atoms bonded together
Compound
Two or more different atoms bonded together
Atmosphere
The thin layers of gases separating the earth from outer space.
Hydrosphere
Water(Oceans, rivers, etc.)
Lithosphere
Earths Crust(Rocks, Soil, Minerals)
Mineral
Any hard, crystalline, inorganic material of a given chemical composition.
CHNOPS
Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
Organic
The Chemical compounds making up tissues of living organisms
Naturally Organic Compunds
Those that make up living organisms(Carbs, proteins, Fats, and Nucleic Acids)
Synthetic Organic Compounds
Human made compounds(Plastics)
Inorganic
All other molecules or Compounds with no carbon-carbon or carbon-hydrogen bonds.
Energy
Has the ability to move matter, has no mass, and occupies no space.
Calorie
The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1gram og water 1 degree celcius.
Kinetic Energy
Energy in action or motion(Light, heat, electrical current)
Potential Energy
Energy in storage(A Battery)
Chemical Energy
The potential energy contained in the chemicals and fuels
Temperature
Measures the molecular motion in a substance caused by the KE present
Law of Thermodynamics(Law Conservation of Energy)
Energy is neither created nor destroyed but may be transformed
2nd Law of Thermodynamics
In any energy conversion, some energy will be lost as heat
Entropy
A measure of the degree of disorder in a system
Heat Energy
The Lowest, most disordered, form of energy
Photo Synthesis Equation
6CO(2) + 6H(2)O —-> C(6)H(12)O(6) + 6O(2)
Oxidation
Breakdown of molecules
Cellulose
Material of plant cell walls
Fermentation
Anaerobic process(Oxygen Free) use of glucose
Biogeochemical Cycles
Circular pathways of elements involving biological, geological, and chemical processes
Eutrophication
A water pollution problem when there is to much phosphorus or nitrogen in a body of water
Nitrogen Fixation
The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen N(2) in a reactive form N(r)
Dentrification
A microbial process that transforms reactive nitrogen back into atmospheric nitrogen
