Chapter 50 Vocab

Question 1

Species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance. Such species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.

Answer 1

Keystone species.

Question 2

The degradation of land in any dry land. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities.

Answer 2

Desertification.

Question 3

Species that evoke a strong emotional response in humans, such as pandas and tigers.

Answer 3

Flagship species.

Question 4

Refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s in the late 1970s, that increased agricultural production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.

Answer 4

Green revolution.

Question 5

The removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.

Answer 5

Deforestation.

Question 6

A species-specific method of risk assessment frequently used in conservation biology. It is traditionally defined as the process that determines the probability that a population will go extinct within a given number of years.

Answer 6

Population viability analysis.

Question 7

When the number of individuals taken from a wild population is so great that the population become severely reduced in numbers.

Answer 7

Overexploitation.

Question 8

A population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.

Answer 8

Endangered species.

Question 9

Use of computers to discover places where biodiversity is high outside of preserved areas.

Answer 9

Gap analysis.

Question 10

In agricultural system in which plots of land are temporarily used then abandoned.

Answer 10

Shifting cultivation.

Question 11

The rising average temperature of earths atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century and it’s projected continuation.

Answer 11

Global warming.

Question 12

The application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine.

Answer 12

Bioinformatics.

Question 13

Organic compounds containing carbon, chlorine and flourine atoms that can depleat the ozone shield.

Answer 13

CFC’s.

Question 14

Management of an ecosystem so that it maintains itself while providing services to human beings.

Answer 14

Sustainable development.

Question 15

Consist of a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level.

Answer 15

Metapopulation.

Question 16

The effect of the juxtaposition or placing side-by-side of contrasting environments on an ecosystem.

Answer 16

Edge effect.

Question 17

The surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure.

Answer 17

Water table.

Question 18

Total number of species, the variability of their genes, and the communities in which they live.

Answer 18

Biodiversity.

Question 19

Contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder of brain, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem.

Answer 19

Pollutants.

Question 20

Population that is found in an unfavorable area where, at best, the birth rate equals the death rate. Usually, the death rate exceeds the birth rate.

Answer 20

Sink population.

Question 21

Pollution produced by factories and manufacturing, composed mostly of particulate matter and sulfur oxides produced primarily by the burning of coal and oil. Characterized by a gray haze.

Answer 21

Industrial smog.