Ecology unit vocab

Question 1

adaptation

Answer 1

the traits that allow species to survive in its environment

Question 2

evolution

Answer 2

species change over generations because individuals compete for scarce resources

Question 3

natural selection

Answer 3

process of better selected individuals passing their traits to the next generations

Question 4

critical factor

Answer 4

single factor in shortest supply relative to demand determining where a species lives

Question 5

tolerance limits

Answer 5

each environmental factor has both minimum and maximum levels

Question 6

habitat

Answer 6

the natural home or environment of an animal plant or other organism

Question 7

indicator

Answer 7

requirments and tolerances of species how to determine specific environmental characteristics

Question 8

ecological niche

Answer 8

more functional descriptions of both the role played by a species

Question 9

generalists

Answer 9

species that tolerance a wide range of conditions or exploit a wide range

Question 10

specialists

Answer 10

person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject, highly skilled in their field

Question 11

endemic species

Answer 11

occur only in one area

Question 12

principle of competitive exclusion

Answer 12

complete competitors cannot exist`

Question 13

speciation

Answer 13

the formation of a new and distinct species in the course of evolution

Question 14

geographic isolation

Answer 14

two populations are seperated by geographic barriers

Question 15

intraspecific competition

Answer 15

competitions among members of the same species

Question 16

interspecific competition

Answer 16

competition between members of different species

Question 17

predator

Answer 17

only organism that feeds directly on another living organism

Question 18

symbiosis

Answer 18

2 or more species live intimatly on another living organism

Question 19

mutualism

Answer 19

combine tissues to mutual benefit

Question 20

commensalism

Answer 20

a type of symbiosis in which one member clearly benefits and the other is neither benefit

Question 21

parasitism

Answer 21

relationship between two random species in which one benefits at the expense as the other

Question 22

keystone species

Answer 22

other speices in an ecosystem largely depend such that if removed the ecosystem would change drastically

Question 23

primarliy productivity

Answer 23

the rate at whcih energy is converted to organic substances

Question 24

abundance

Answer 24

an expression of total numbers of organisms in a biological community

Question 25

diversity

Answer 25

a measure of the numbers of organisms in a biological community

Question 26

ecological structure
random’
uniform
clustered

Answer 26

all of the living and nonliving physical compents that makes up that ecosystem

Question 27

edge effect

Answer 27

boundary between 1 habitat

Question 28

ecotone

Answer 28

a transitional are of vegetation between two different plant communities, such as a forest