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 the interbreeding and reproducing group
Biotic community or biota
The grouping or assemblage of plants, animals, and microbes
Abiotic
Nonliving, chemical, and physical factors, such as the amount of water or moisture present, climate, ect.
Ecosystems
A grouping of plants animals and microbes occupying an explicit unit of space and interacting with each other and their environment. Functional units of sustainable life on earth.
Ecotone
A transitional area between two separate ecosystems that has characteristics of both.
Landscapes
A group of interacting ecosystems. Landscape ecology is the science that studies the interactions among ecosystems
Biosphere
All species and physical factors on earth functioning as one unified ecosystem. All life on earth
Conditions
Abiotic factors that vary in space and time but are not used up or made unavailable to other species
Resources
Any factors that are consumed by organisms
Optimum
A certain level at which the organisms do best
Range of tolerance
The entire span that allows any growth at all
Limits of tolerance
High and low ends on range of tolerance
Zone of stress
Region between the optimal range and limits of tolerance
Limiting factor
A factor that limits growth
Law of limiting factors
Observation of limiting factors
Synergistic effects or synergism
Two or more factors reacting in a way that causes an effect much greater
Habitat
The kind of place where a species is biologically adapted to live
Ecological niche
What animals feed on, where they feed, when it feeds, where it finds shelter, where they nest, and how they respond to abiotic factors.
Matter
Anything that has mass and occupies space
Atoms
Basic building blocks of all matter
Molecule
Consists of two or more atoms bonded together in a specific way
Compound
Consists of two or more different atoms bonded together
Atmosphere
Thin layer of gases separating earth from space
Hydrosphere
Water
Lithosphere
Earths crust
Mineral
Any hard, crystalline, inorganic material of a given chemical composition
Organic
The chemical compounds making up the tissues of living organisms
Naturally organic compounds
Make up living organisms
Ex. Lipids, proteins
Synthetic organic compounds
Human made
Inorganic
Refers to all other molecules or compounds
No carbon-carbon or hydrogen-carbon
Energy
Anything that has the ability to move matter, has no mass and doesn’t occupy space
Calorie
Non SI unit of energy
1 ml/g of water 1 degree Celsius
Kinetic energy
Energy in action or motion
Potential energy
Energy in storage
Chemical energy
Potential energy contained in chemical fuels
Temperature
Measures the molecular motion in a substance caused by kinetic energy
1st law of thermodynamics - law of conservation of energy
Energy is neither created no destroyed but may be converted from one form to another
2nd law of thermodynamics - law of entropy
In any energy conversion you will end up with less usable energy
Entropy
Measure of the degree of disorder in a system
Heat energy
Lowest and most disordered form of energy
Biomes
Similar or related ecosystems that are often grouped together
Photosynthesis
6CO2 + 6H2O ——> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Cell respiration
Photosynthesis backwards
Oxidation
Breakdown of molecules
Cellulose
Fibers of plant cell walls
Fermentation
Anaerobic process
Eutrophication
A water pollution problem when there is too much phosphorus in water
Nitrogen fixation
A number of bacteria and Cyanobacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into reactive nitrogen
Legumes
Peas, beans, soybeans, and alfalfa
Non-legume plants
Corn, potato wheat, cotton
Nitrifying bacteria
Group of soil bacteria that oxidizes the ammonium to nitrate
Nitrogen fixation
Lightening turns atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium
Industrial fixation of nitrogen
Manufacture of fertilizer
Denitrification
Microbial process that occurs in soils and sediment depleted of oxygen which converts nitrates into nitrogen gas
SI unit of Energy
Joule
