chapter 4 key terms

Question 1

ecosystems

Answer 1

An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts

Question 2

biotic factor

Answer 2

a living thing, as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem:

Question 3

abiotic factor

Answer 3

a living thing, as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem:

Question 4

organism

Answer 4

In biology, an organism (from Greek: ὀργανισμός, organismos) is any organic, living system that functions as an individual entity.

Question 5

species

Answer 5

species, in biology, classification comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding

Question 6

population

Answer 6

a community of animals, plants, or humans among whose members interbreeding occurs.

Question 7

community

Answer 7

a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

Question 8

habitat

Answer 8

Habitat refers to the place or the location where an organism (or a biological population) lives, resides or exists.

Question 9

natural selection

Answer 9

the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.

Question 10

evaporation

Answer 10

the process of turning from liquid into vapor.

Question 11

adaptation

Answer 11

In biology and ecology, adaptation refers to the process of adjusting in behavior, physiology, or structure to become more suited to an environment.

Question 12

artificial selection

Answer 12

Artificial selection or selective breeding describes the human selection of breeding pairs to produce favorable offspring. This applies to all organisms – from virus to four-footer, and from pet to food source. Artificial selection aims to increase the productive or esthetic value of an organism to our advantage.

Question 13

resistance

Answer 13

resistance is the ability of one or more organisms to tolerate a particular chemical designed to kill it

Question 14

archaea

Answer 14

Archaea, any of a group of single-celled prokaryotic organisms with distinct molecular characteristics separating them from bacteria and eukaryotes.

Question 15

bacteria

Answer 15

Bacteria are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms.

Question 16

fungus

Answer 16

A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms.

Question 17

protist

Answer 17

A protist (/ˈproʊtɪst/) is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus.

Question 18

gymnosperm

Answer 18

gymnosperm, any vascular plant that reproduces by means of an exposed seed, or ovule—unlike angiosperms, or flowering plants, whose seeds are enclosed by mature ovaries, or fruits.

Question 19

angiosperm

Answer 19

Angiosperm, any of about 300000 species of flowering plants, the largest and most diverse group in the plant kingdom

Question 20

invertebrate

Answer 20

Invertebrate, any animal that lacks a vertebral column, or backbone, in contrast to the cartilaginous or bony vertebrates.

Question 21

vertebrate

Answer 21

Vertebrates comprise all species of animals within the subphylum Vertebrata (chordates with backbones).