Ecology Test Flashcards
The scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environments.
Ecology
The portion of Earth that supports life. From the atmosphere through the oceans.
Biosphere
The nonliving parts of an organism’s environment.
Abiotic factors
All the living organisms that inhabit an environment.
Biotic factors
A group of organisms that are able to produce fertile offspring and that share common genes and therefore resemble each other in appearance.
Species
A group of organisms of one species that interbreed and live in the same place at the same time.
Population
A collection of several (or all of the) interacting populations that inhabit a common environment.
Community
The interactions among populations in a community. Includes all of the biotic factors as well as the community’s physical surroundings, or abiotic factors.
Ecosystem
A group of ecosystems with the same climax communities (&/or climates).
Biome
Put in order: Organism, Biosphere, population, ecosystem, species, biome, community
Organism, species, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere.
The place where an organism lives out its life.
Habitat
The role and position a species has in its environment. It includes all biotic and abiotic interactions as an animal meets its needs for survival and reproduction.
Niche - an organism’s way of life.
The act of killing and eating another organism.
Predation
An organism that kills and eats another organism
Predator
An organism that is killed and eaten by a predator
Prey
The relationship between species that attempt to use the same limited resource (a dog and cat fighting for the last piece of meat)
Competition
A close association between two or more organisms of different species.
Symbiosis
A type of symbiotic relationship in which one species (the symbiont) benefits and the other species (the host) is neither harmed nor benefitted.
Commensalism
A type of symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits (the parasite) at the expense of the other species (the host).
Parasitism
A type of symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship.
Mutualism
Generally, the larger of the two species in a symbiotic relationship.
Host
Generally, the smaller of the two species in a symbiotic relationship.
Symbiont
Is an autotroph a producer or a consumer?
Producer
Organisms that use energy from the sun or energy stored in chemical compounds to manufacture their own nutrients.
Autotroph
Are heterotrophs producers or consumers?
Consumers
An organism that cannot make its own food and must feed on other organisms for energy and nutrients.
Heterotroph
Organisms that break down and absorb nutrients from dead organisms.
Decomposer
The total weight of living matter at each tropic level.
Biomass
A sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another.
Food chain
A model that expresses all the possible feeding relationships at each tropic level in a community
Food web
Feeding step in the passage of energy and materials through an ecosystem.
Trophic level
What percent of energy from one trophic level is transferred to the next?
10%
An increase in the size of a population over time.
Population growth
As a population gets larger, it grows at a faster rate.
Exponential population growth
The number of organisms of one species that an environment can support.
Carrying capacity
Any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction of organisms
Limiting factor
birth rate - death rate =
Population Growth Rate (PGR)
The variety of life in an area; usually measured as the number of species that live there.
Biodiversity
The disappearance of a species when the last of its members dies.
Extinction
A species’ numbers become so low that extinction is possible.
Endangered species
When the population of a species is likely to become endangered.
Threatened species
The study and implementation of methods to protect biodiversity.
Conservation biology
Those parts of the environment that are useful or necessary for living organisms
Natural resources
When is an ecosystem in balance?
When no animal is over the carrying capacity
This species is very important; their removal can collapse the entire system.
Keystone species
