DEFINITIONS Flashcards
fossil
Any trace of a once-living organism.
adaptive radiation
The rapid diversification of an evolutionary lineage to suit a variety of lifestyles and ecological niches.
mass extinction
A significant divergence from regular extinction rates that causes a rapid loss of biodiversity.
Anthropocene
Refers to the geological epoch in which human activities are the primary influence on the environment. This was preceded by the Holocene, which was the prime environment for humans to thrive and expand.
chemoautotroph
Refers to organisms (e.g. bacteria) that meet their energy needs by synthesising organic compounds using inorganic energy derived from chemical processes. Chemoautotrophs typically thrive in hostile environments (e.g. deep sea) where they are primary energy producers.
photoautotroph
Refers to an organism that meets its energy needs by converting inorganic light energy into organic compounds via photosynthesis.
monophyletic
Refers to a group of organisms that are uniquely descended from an ancestor/ancestral group
adaptation
Refers to the biological mechanism by which organisms overcome environmental changes. It is an inherited aspect of an individual that may enable it to outcompete others in a specific environment.
evolution
Refers to the cumulative change in a population or species over time.
natural selection
Refers to a key agent of evolutionary change, by which phenotypic variation within a population advantages individuals with traits best suited to their environment’s demands, making them more likely to survive and pass on these favourable alleles to their offspring.
inheritance
Refers to when DNA or a trait is passed from parent to offspring during the reproductive process.
microevolution
Refers to the agents of change that shape a species’ genome.
macroevolution
Refers to the broad patterns of cumulative change that occur in large taxonomic groups over long periods of time. For example, the emergence of a new species or evolutionary lineage.
polygenic
Refers to when a specific phenotype is the cumulative result of multiple genes.
genetic drift
Refers to random and directionless changes in allele frequencies within a population due to sampling errors.
gene flow
Refers to the transfer of genetic information from one population to another. It occurs during migration, movement, or hybridisation and can introduce new alleles.
hybridisation
Refers to interbreeding individuals from different, though often closely related, species to produce viable offspring.
speciation
Refers to the evolutionary process whereby new species emerge due to reproductive isolation (i.e. long-term inhibited gene flow). One evolutionary lineage will split into two or more.
adaptive introgression
Refers to the introduction of beneficial traits from one species into another.
introgression
Refers to the movement of alleles from one species or population to another
selective sweep
Refers to strong positive directional selection in a specific locus of a genome. It removes population variation, thus reducing genetic diversity.
random mating
Refers to when the probability that two individuals in a population mate is the same for all possible pairs of individuals within that population.
GWAS
Refers to the process of associating genotypes with measurable phenotypes.
homeostasis
Refers to the maintenance of internal order.
thermoneutral zone
Refers to the temperature zone where endotherms can maintain a stable and safe body temperature without expending energy.
metabolic niche
Refers to the continuous set of environmental conditions where organisms can reproduce at a rate sufficient to maintain or grow their population.
population
Refers to a group of individuals of the same species who live in the same location, rely on the same resources, are influenced by similar environmental conditions and interact with each other.
population ecology
Refers to the study of relationships between populations, environments and their resources. It considers biotic and abiotic influence on population abundance, distribution and composition.
demography
Refers to the study of birth and death rates of populations and how they change over time.
semelparous
Refers to when an organism reproduces just once before death.
iteroparous
Refers to when organisms reproduce multiple times over their lifetime.
parasite
Refers to an organism that obtains nutrients from another organism. This commonly harms the host and sometimes causes death.
infection
Refers to when a parasite colonises a host organism.
disease
Refers to when an infection causes symptoms in the host.
pathogen
Refers to a disease-causing agent
vector
Refers to an organism that carries and transmits infectious pathogens to other organisms.
virulence
Refers to the severity or harmfulness of a disease.
carrying capacity
Refers to the maximum population size than an environment can sustain.
life history strategy
Refers to a species’ pattern of growth, survival and reproductive events.
threatened species
Refers to a species or population on a path towards extinction.
allee effect
Refers to a phenomenon that occurs when the growth rate of a small population is in decline due to under-crowding.
community
Refers to a group of potentially interacting species that live together in space and time (Magurran 2004).
selection (ecological communities)
Refers to changes in community structure caused by deterministic (non-random) fitness differences between taxa.
drift (ecological communities)
Refers to random changes in community structure or abundance of difference taxa.
diversification (ecological communities)
Refers to an increase in a community’s taxonomic diversity over time due to evolution. It results in the emergence of new evolutionary lineages, genotypes, forms, sub-species and species and can occur over short or long timeframes.
dispersal (ecological communities)
Refers to the movement of individuals from one place to another. It can occur at any stage of the life cycles and its impact varies depending on the source and recipient of migrants and the distance of migration.
predation
Refers to when an organism consumes all or parts of another organism to meet its energy needs, often to the detriment of prey.Refers to when the consumer benefits at the mortal cost of the prey. This includes herbivores and insectivorous plants.
co-evolution
Refers to when unrelated organisms evolve in a co-ordinated manner.
orderly succession
Refers to when the development of a species in an area makes the environment more suitable for a different species to move in, dominate and eventually replace its predecessor.
stylised succession
Refers to the synergistic development of various types of vegetation communities in a single space.
disturbance regime
Refers to long-term patterns of diturbance across a geographic area. It is is estimated using historical daat and measured by the size, frequency and intensity of disturbances, which helps predict the probability and nature of future disturbances.
ecosystem service
Refers to the benefits humans obtain from the environment and its resources.
nature-based solution
Refers to the use of natural systems to provide solutions to crises in a way that benefits both people and the planet.
keystone predator
Refers to a predator that plays such a signficant role in an ecological community that its absence would drastically change/end that community.
competitive exclusion
Refers to when one species dominates in the long term due to competition for the same resources. An example of this is how the abundance of Elaeocarpus trees is generally lower when Nothofagus trees are also present in the community (Leathwick & Austin 2001).
metacommunity
Refers to a group of local communties occupying a set of habitat pactches and linked by the dispersal of mutliple potentially interacting species (Leibold et al., 2004)
Name the classifications
Dear King Philip Came Over for Good Soup
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
heterotroph
Refers to organisms that cannot produce their own means of sustenance and thus consume other sources of organic matter to meet their energy needs. Heterotrophs are primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers in the food chain, as compared to autotrophs, who are the producers.
coelom
Refers to a central, fluid-filled body cavity. All vertebrates have coeloms.
environmental gradient
Refers to factors that influence environmental conditions, which helps determine which species thrive and persist in the area. For example, the ecological niche of terrestrial plants depends on environmental gradients such as radiation, temperature, aspect, fire regime, cover etc.
biotic changes
Refers to the temporal and spatial variation in abundance of food, natural enemies and reproductive partners.
abiotic changes
Refers to the temporal and spatial variation in temperature, humidity, sunlight. For movile organisms, altitude, longitude and substrate may be factors.
signal
Refers to an act or structure that influences the behaviour of the recipient on an innate level, as it evolved under selection for a specific purpose. The result is usually mutually beneficial for the producer and recipient.
cue
Refers to an incidental source of information that may influence the recipient’s behaviour basedon learned associations. Responses are not evolved under selection but are instead often opportunistically exploitative.
eavesdropping
Refers to when an unintended receiver, often a predator or competitor, detects an signal and exploits that information for their own benefit.
intra-specific signal
Refers to a signal released and detected by members of the same species.
masquerade
Refers to a type of camouflage where organisms mimic the appearance and movement of banal objects to avoid detection.
Batesian mimicry
Refers to when a benign organism resembles a noxious or dangerous model to deter predators. e.g. butterflies
aggressive mimicry
Refers to when a toxic or dangerous organism resembles a something benign to avoid detection by prey e.g. salticid spiders and green tree ants
Müllerian mimicry
Refers to when mutliple harmfulspecies display similar anti-predation marks though not being immediately related. This is a case of convergent evolution.
coevolution
Refers to when evolution in one species triggers reciprocal evolution in an interacting species.
homodont
Refers to organisms that homogenous dentition e.g. reptiles
species pool
Refers to a group of species capable of persisting in an area.
gene pool
Refers to the genetic information carried by a population. It is dynamic.
