Ecosystems Part 3

Question 1

Climax community

Answer 1

The final stage of succession, remaining relatively unchanged until destroyed by an even such as a fire or human interference

Question 2

Cultural eutrophication

Answer 2

Occurs when man speeds up the aging process by allowing excessive amounts of nutrients in such forms as sewage, detergents, and fertilizers to enter the ecosystem

Question 3

Eutrophication

Answer 3

The process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients (such as phosphates) that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant life usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen

Question 4

Keystone species

Answer 4

A species whose presence and role within an ecosystem has a disproportionate effect in other organisms within the system. A keystone species is often a dominant predator whose removal allows a prey population to explode and often decreases overall diversity

Question 5

Pioneer species.

Answer 5

Pioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems

Question 6

Primary succession

Answer 6

Primary succession is one of the types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier, is deposited.

Question 7

Resilience

Answer 7

Resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by twisting damage and recovering quickly

Question 8

Secondary succession

Answer 8

Secondary succession is a process started by an event (forest fire, wildfire, hurricane) that reduces an already established ecosystem to a smaller population of species, and as such secondary succession occurs on preexisting soil whereas primary succession usually occurs in a place lacking soil.

Question 9

Sere

Answer 9

An intermediate stage found in ecological succession in an ecosystem advancing toward sits climax community. In many cases more than one serial stage evolves until climax conditions are attained.

Question 10

Stability

Answer 10

Refers to the capability of a natural system to apply self-regulating mechanisms so as to return to a steady state after an outside disturbance.