unit 1

Question 1

Genes

Answer 1

a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.

Question 2

Population

Answer 2

a particular section, group, or type of people or animals living in an area or country

Question 3

Species

Answer 3

a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding

Question 4

Natural Selection

Answer 4

the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Question 5

Evolution

Answer 5

the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

Question 6

Speciation

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Extinction

Answer 7

the fact or process of a species, family, or other group of animals or plants becoming extinct.

Question 8

Co-evolution

Answer 8

the influence of closely associated species on each other in their evolution.

Question 9

Prey

Answer 9

the preying of one animal on others

Question 10

Competition/Intraspecific

Answer 10

produced, occurring, or existing within a species or between individuals of a single species

Question 11

Competitive Exclusion Principle

Answer 11

a proposition that two species which compete for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values.

Question 12

Symbiosis

Answer 12

a close, prolonged association between two or more different biological species

Question 13

Parasitism/Parasite/Host/Vectors/
Ectoparasite/Endoparasite

Answer 13

the practice of living as a parasite in or on another organism.

Question 14

Commensalism

Answer 14

an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm.

Question 15

Mutualism

Answer 15

association between organisms of two different species in which each benefits.

Question 16

Community

Answer 16

a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

Question 17

Population

Answer 17

all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.

Question 18

Ecosystem

Answer 18

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 19

Producer/Autotroph

Answer 19

an organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals

Question 20

Consumer/Heterotroph

Answer 20

an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances.

Question 21

Primary consumer/ Herbivore

Answer 21

an animal that feeds on plants.

Question 22

Secondary consumer/Omnivore/Carnivore

Answer 22

organisms, primarily animals, which eat primary consumers

Question 23

Scavenger/Decomposer/Detritivore

Answer 23

an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.

Question 24

Detritus

Answer 24

waste or debris of any kind.

Question 25

Keystone species

Answer 25

a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.

Question 26

Trophic level

Answer 26

each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy

Question 27

Food chain/Food web

Answer 27

a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Question 28

Biomass

Answer 28

the total quantity or weight of organisms in a given area or volume.