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BIOL10010 Introductory Biology: Life's Complexity > DEFINITIONS > Flashcards

DEFINITIONS Flashcards

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1
Q

fossil

A

Any trace of a once-living organism.

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2
Q

adaptive radiation

A

The rapid diversification of an evolutionary lineage to suit a variety of lifestyles and ecological niches.

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3
Q

mass extinction

A

A significant divergence from regular extinction rates that causes a rapid loss of biodiversity.

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4
Q

Anthropocene

A

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.

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5
Q

chemoautotroph

A

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.

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6
Q

photoautotroph

A

Refers to an organism that meets its energy needs by converting inorganic light energy into organic compounds via photosynthesis.

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7
Q

monophyletic

A

Refers to a group of organisms that are uniquely descended from an ancestor/ancestral group

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8
Q

adaptation

A

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.

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9
Q

evolution

A

Refers to the cumulative change in a population or species over time.

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10
Q

natural selection

A

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.

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11
Q

inheritance

A

Refers to when DNA or a trait is passed from parent to offspring during the reproductive process.

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12
Q

microevolution

A

Refers to the agents of change that shape a species’ genome.

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13
Q

macroevolution

A

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.

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14
Q

polygenic

A

Refers to when a specific phenotype is the cumulative result of multiple genes.

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15
Q

genetic drift

A

Refers to random and directionless changes in allele frequencies within a population due to sampling errors.

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16
Q

gene flow

A

Refers to the transfer of genetic information from one population to another. It occurs during migration, movement, or hybridisation and can introduce new alleles.

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17
Q

hybridisation

A

Refers to interbreeding individuals from different, though often closely related, species to produce viable offspring.

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18
Q

speciation

A

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.

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19
Q

adaptive introgression

A

Refers to the introduction of beneficial traits from one species into another.

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20
Q

introgression

A

Refers to the movement of alleles from one species or population to another

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21
Q

selective sweep

A

Refers to strong positive directional selection in a specific locus of a genome. It removes population variation, thus reducing genetic diversity.

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22
Q

random mating

A

Refers to when the probability that two individuals in a population mate is the same for all possible pairs of individuals within that population.

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23
Q

GWAS

A

Refers to the process of associating genotypes with measurable phenotypes.

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24
Q

homeostasis

A

Refers to the maintenance of internal order.

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25
Q

thermoneutral zone

A

Refers to the temperature zone where endotherms can maintain a stable and safe body temperature without expending energy.

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26
Q

metabolic niche

A

Refers to the continuous set of environmental conditions where organisms can reproduce at a rate sufficient to maintain or grow their population.

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27
Q

population

A

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.

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28
Q

population ecology

A

Refers to the study of relationships between populations, environments and their resources. It considers biotic and abiotic influence on population abundance, distribution and composition.

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29
Q

demography

A

Refers to the study of birth and death rates of populations and how they change over time.

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30
Q

semelparous

A

Refers to when an organism reproduces just once before death.

31
Q

iteroparous

A

Refers to when organisms reproduce multiple times over their lifetime.

32
Q

parasite

A

Refers to an organism that obtains nutrients from another organism. This commonly harms the host and sometimes causes death.

33
Q

infection

A

Refers to when a parasite colonises a host organism.

34
Q

disease

A

Refers to when an infection causes symptoms in the host.

35
Q

pathogen

A

Refers to a disease-causing agent

36
Q

vector

A

Refers to an organism that carries and transmits infectious pathogens to other organisms.

37
Q

virulence

A

Refers to the severity or harmfulness of a disease.

38
Q

carrying capacity

A

Refers to the maximum population size than an environment can sustain.

39
Q

life history strategy

A

Refers to a species’ pattern of growth, survival and reproductive events.

40
Q

threatened species

A

Refers to a species or population on a path towards extinction.

41
Q

allee effect

A

Refers to a phenomenon that occurs when the growth rate of a small population is in decline due to under-crowding.

42
Q

community

A

Refers to a group of potentially interacting species that live together in space and time (Magurran 2004).

43
Q

selection (ecological communities)

A

Refers to changes in community structure caused by deterministic (non-random) fitness differences between taxa.

44
Q

drift (ecological communities)

A

Refers to random changes in community structure or abundance of difference taxa.

45
Q

diversification (ecological communities)

A

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.

46
Q

dispersal (ecological communities)

A

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.

47
Q

predation

A

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.

48
Q

co-evolution

A

Refers to when unrelated organisms evolve in a co-ordinated manner.

49
Q

orderly succession

A

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.

50
Q

stylised succession

A

Refers to the synergistic development of various types of vegetation communities in a single space.

51
Q

disturbance regime

A

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.

52
Q

ecosystem service

A

Refers to the benefits humans obtain from the environment and its resources.

53
Q

nature-based solution

A

Refers to the use of natural systems to provide solutions to crises in a way that benefits both people and the planet.

54
Q

keystone predator

A

Refers to a predator that plays such a signficant role in an ecological community that its absence would drastically change/end that community.

55
Q

competitive exclusion

A

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).

56
Q

metacommunity

A

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)

57
Q

Name the classifications

A

Dear King Philip Came Over for Good Soup
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species

58
Q

heterotroph

A

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.

59
Q

coelom

A

Refers to a central, fluid-filled body cavity. All vertebrates have coeloms.

60
Q

environmental gradient

A

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.

61
Q

biotic changes

A

Refers to the temporal and spatial variation in abundance of food, natural enemies and reproductive partners.

62
Q

abiotic changes

A

Refers to the temporal and spatial variation in temperature, humidity, sunlight. For movile organisms, altitude, longitude and substrate may be factors.

63
Q

signal

A

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.

64
Q

cue

A

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.

65
Q

eavesdropping

A

Refers to when an unintended receiver, often a predator or competitor, detects an signal and exploits that information for their own benefit.

66
Q

intra-specific signal

A

Refers to a signal released and detected by members of the same species.

67
Q

masquerade

A

Refers to a type of camouflage where organisms mimic the appearance and movement of banal objects to avoid detection.

68
Q

Batesian mimicry

A

Refers to when a benign organism resembles a noxious or dangerous model to deter predators. e.g. butterflies

69
Q

aggressive mimicry

A

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

70
Q

Müllerian mimicry

A

Refers to when mutliple harmfulspecies display similar anti-predation marks though not being immediately related. This is a case of convergent evolution.

71
Q

coevolution

A

Refers to when evolution in one species triggers reciprocal evolution in an interacting species.

72
Q

homodont

A

Refers to organisms that homogenous dentition e.g. reptiles

73
Q

species pool

A

Refers to a group of species capable of persisting in an area.

74
Q

gene pool

A

Refers to the genetic information carried by a population. It is dynamic.

BIOL10010 Introductory Biology: Life's Complexity (8 decks)

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