Ecology

Question 1

nonliving components of the environment

Answer 1

abiotic

Question 2

living components of the environment

Answer 2

biotic

Question 3

one or more organisms plus the external environment with which they interact

Answer 3

ecological system

ecosystem

Question 4

a group of individuals of the same species living in the same place at the same time

Answer 4

population

Question 5

interacting populations of different species

Answer 5

community

Question 6

of individuals of a species per unit of area

Answer 6

population density

Question 7

In ecology, “N” represents…

Answer 7

population size

Question 8

particula kind of environment in which an individual lives

Answer 8

habitat

Question 9

the change in a population size per unit if time

Answer 9

growth rate

(births - deaths) per unit time

Question 10

growth, development, reproduction, and death of an individual

Answer 10

life history

Question 11

fraction of individuals that survive from birth to different life stages

Answer 11

survivorship

Question 12

materials and energy (and the time available to acquire them)

Answer 12

resources

Question 13

“Once an organism has acquired a unit of some resource, it can be used for only one function at a time.” This is referred to as:

Answer 13

Principle of Allocation

resources must be divided between maintenance, foraging, growth, defense, and reproduction

Question 14

“multiplicative growth” is also referred to as:

Answer 14

exponential growth

Question 15

population growth that slows and usually reaches a more or less “steady state”

Answer 15

logistic growth

Question 16

The number of individuals the environment can support

Answer 16

carrying capacity (K)

Question 17

resources that are in short supply relative to demand

Answer 17

limiting resource

examples include: food, water, space, sunlight, inorganic nutrients, pollinators, etc

Question 18

Give 3 examples of “consumer-resource” interactions

Answer 18

• predation
• herbivory
• parasitism

Question 19

a symbiotic relationship that benefits BOTH participants (+/+)

Answer 19

mutualism

Question 20

a symbiotic relationship in which ONE participant benefits while the other is unaffected (+/0)

Answer 20

commensalism

Question 21

symbiotic relationship in which ONE participant is harmed while the other in unaffected (-/0)

Answer 21

amensalism

Question 22

where different species use a particular resource in slightly different ways and therefore can coexist

Answer 22

resource partitioning

Question 23

species that reproduce rapidly and spread widely because they are introduced to a region where their natural enemies are absent

Answer 23

invasive

Question 24

consumer-resource interactions where energy and materials flow through a community

Answer 24

“trophic” interactions

trophic levels refer to an organism’s particular feeding level

Question 25

organisms that convert solar energy into a form that can be used by the rest of the community

Answer 25

producers
or
autotrophs

Question 26

species that obtain energy by breaking apart organic compounds that have been assembled by other organisms

Answer 26

consumers
or
heterotrophs

Question 27

organisms that consume producers

Answer 27

primary consumers (herbivores)

Question 28

organisms that consume herbivores

Answer 28

secondary consumers

Question 29

organisms that consume carnivores

Answer 29

tertiary consumers

Question 30

organisms that consume other consumers

Answer 30

carnivores

could be secondary, tertiary, etc

Question 31

organisms that consume producers and other consumers

Answer 31

omnivores

Question 32

organisms that feed on wastes or dead bodies of organisms

Answer 32

decomposers (detritivores)

Question 33

diagrams that show the feeding relationships in a community

Answer 33

food web

food webs show the direction of the energy/nutrient flow

Question 34

total amount of energy that primary producers capture and convert to chemical energy during a period of time

Answer 34

gross primary productivity (GPP)

Question 35

the amount of energy that is available for consumption

Answer 35

net primary productivity (NPP)

Question 36

the total biomass of each trophic level is about 1/10 that of the level it feeds on

Answer 36

“10% rule”

this applies roughly to biomass, energy; and population number)

Question 37

movement of matter among and between the biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem

Answer 37

biogeochemical cycles