Earh's Systems Flashcards
System
an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole:
a mountain system; a railroad system.
Feedback
the furnishing of data concerning the operation or output of a machine to an automatic control device or to the machine itself, so that subsequent or ongoing operations of the machine can be altered or corrected.
Model
a standard or example for imitation or comparison
Biosphere
the part of the earth’s crust, waters, and atmosphere that supports life.
Ecosystem
Ecology. a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment:
Aquatic ecosystems differ radically from their terrestrial counterparts.
Biome
a complex biotic community characterized by distinctive plant and animal species and maintained under the climatic conditions of the region, especially such a community that has developed to climax.
Organism
a form of life composed of mutually interdependent parts that maintain various vital processes.
Population
the body of inhabitants of a place:
The population of the city opposes the addition of fluorides to the drinking water.
Biotic Factor
a living thing, as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem:
How do humans affect other biotic factors?
Weather is not a biotic factor because it is not alive.
Abiotic Factor
a nonliving condition or thing, as climate or habitat, that influences or affects an ecosystem and the organisms in it:
Abiotic factors can determine which species of organisms will survive in a given environment.
Community
a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
Habitat
the natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism:
a tropical habitat.
Niche
an ornamental recess in a wall or the like, usually semicircular in plan and arched, as for a statue or other decorative object.
Biodiversity
biological diversity among and within plant and animal species in an environment:
Coral reefs are not just havens for marine biodiversity, they also underpin the economies of many coastal communities.
Spiraling extinctions will continue diminishing biodiversity for hundreds of years.
Keystone Species
A species whose presence and role within an ecosystem has a disproportionate effect on other organisms within the system.
exponential growth
growth whose rate becomes ever more rapid in proportion to the growing total number or size.
“the exponential growth of the world’s population
logistic growth
he number or quantity of people or things that can be conveyed or held by a vehicle or container.
density-independent
density-independent factor, also called limiting factor, in ecology, any force that affects the size of a population of living things regardless of the density of the population (the number of individuals per unit area).
carrying capacity
carrying capacity, the average population density or population size of a species below which its numbers tend to increase and above which its numbers tend to decrease because of shortages of resources.
density-dependent
density-dependent factor, also called regulating factor, in ecology, any force that affects the size of a population of living things in response to the density
population density
population ecology: Population density and growth: An organism’s life history is the sequence of events related to survival and reproduction that occur from birth through death. Populations from different parts of the geographic range that a species inhabits may exhibit
emigration
emigration, the departure from a country for life or residence in another. See human
disturbance
In soil seed bank: The role of disturbance
Resilience
