Chapter 57

Question 1

secondary succession

Answer 1

succession after disturbance that didn’t eliminate all organisms originally living on the site

Question 2

island biogeography

Answer 2

theory proposing that # of species on an island represents equilibrium between immigration and extinction rates

Question 3

keystone species

Answer 3

species that have dominant influence on composition of a community

Question 4

food chain

Answer 4

portion of food web–simple sequence of predator/prey relationship

Question 5

community

Answer 5

ecologically integrated group of species of organisms inhabiting a given area

Question 6

net primary productivity (NPP)

Answer 6

rate at which energy captured by photosynthesis is incorporated into bodies of primary producers through growth and reproduction

Question 7

ecological efficiency

Answer 7

overall transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next; expressed as ratio of consumer production to producer production

Question 8

primary consumer

Answer 8

organism (herbivore) that eats plant tissures

Question 9

trophic cascade

Answer 9

progression over successively lower trophic levels of indirect effects of a predator

Question 10

biomass

Answer 10

total weight of all organisms (or some designated group of organisms) in a given area

Question 11

ecosystem engineer

Answer 11

organism that builds structures that alter existing habitats or creates new habitats

Question 12

trophic level

Answer 12

group of organisms united by obtaining their energy from the same part of the food web of a biological community

Question 13

secondary consumer

Answer 13

organism that eats primary consumers

Question 14

alpha diversity

Answer 14

species diversity within single community or habitat

Question 15

gross primary production

Answer 15

amt of energy captured by primary producers in a community

Question 16

Shannon diversity index

Answer 16

formula for quantifying diversity that takes both species richness and species evenness into acct; based on mathematical expression of certainty with which the next item sampled in a series can be predicted

Question 17

species-area relationship

Answer 17

relationship between size of an area and # of species it supports

Question 18

food web

Answer 18

complete set of food links between species in a community

Question 19

primary producer

Answer 19

photosynthetic or chemosynthetic organism that synthesizes complex organic molecules from simple inorganic molecules

Question 20

facilitation

Answer 20

in succession, modification of the environment by a colonizing species in a way that allows colonization by other species

Question 21

Sorenson’s index

Answer 21

mathematical formula that measures beta diversity

Question 22

species richness

Answer 22

total # of species living in a region

Question 23

climax community

Answer 23

final stage of succession; community capable of perpetuating itself under local climatic and soil conditions & persists for relatively long time

Question 24

heterotrophic succession

Answer 24

succession in detritus-based communities, which differs from other types of succession in taking place without the participation of plants

Question 25

gamma diversity

Answer 25

regional diversity found over a range of communities or habitats in a geographic region

Question 26

gross primary productivity (GPP)

Answer 26

rate at which primary producers in a community turn solar energy into stored chemical energy via photosynthesis

Question 27

succession

Answer 27

gradual, sequential series of changes in the species composition of a community following a disturbance

Question 28

inhibitor

Answer 28

substance that blocks a biological process

Question 29

net primary production

Answer 29

amt of primary producer biomass made available for consumption by heterotrophs

Question 30

primary succession

Answer 30

succession that begins in an area initially devoid of life, such as on recently exposed glacial till or lava flows

Question 31

monoculture

Answer 31

large-scale planting of a single species of domesticated crop plants

Question 32

beta diversity

Answer 32

between-habitat diversity; measure of change in species composition from one community or habitat to another