Unit 1 Study Guide Flashcards
Characteristics of Life
Daily functions that allows an organism to survive. These can be the originality of these functions of the human body and how they lead to life on Earth. (Reproduction, Cells, Organs, Homeostasis, Metabolism, Development, Death, etc.)
Biotic
A living organism.
Abiotic
A non-living organism.
Dependent Variable
Something that can be measured.
Independent Variable
Something that is changing at a constant rate.
Controlled Variable/Constant
Something that stays the same throughout the experiment.
10% Rule
When an organism consumes another and because of the Net Primary Productivity concept, the organism only gains 10% of the natural resource due to deductions.
Greenhouse Gas
Gases and molecules in the atmosphere that heat can pass through but trap and stops the heat from escaping. These gases can either lead to global warming if too much is being produced or temperatures dropping if there is too little.
Predator
An organism that relies on prey as its food source and is traveled or categorized into food webs/chains.
Prey
An animal that is a food source to those above them in trophic levels and is categorized into food webs/chains.
Predator-Prey Cycle
A cycle of life that changes specie and population growth with predators eating prey and prey being herbivores and collecting food/nutrients so that those predators can survive. This means that there will always a balance and consistent change as if the preys decrease the predators as well and if the preys increase the predators will follow the same path.
Mechanical Defense
A defense mechanism where an organism uses its skill and power to defend itself from other species.
Physical Defense
A defense mechanism where the organism uses its external genetic adaptions to fight off or defend itself.
Chemical Defense
A defense mechanism where the organism uses a substance or body fluid to survive and prevent predators.
Mimicry
A defense mechanism where an organism uses its bodily functions to adapt into the environment, perhaps to blend in with more threatening traits that help show predators not to mess with certain species.
Behavioral Defense
A defense mechanism where an animal acts or plays to deceive and manipulate the predators in doing things that do not harm the prey.
Competitive Exclusion Principle
A relationship between two or more species that compete for the same niche or scarce resource that results in one organism dominating from their genetic or adaptive traits.
Symbiosis
A long-term relationship in which organisms physically interact in a negative, positive, or mutual manner.
Mutualism
When both the organisms are unharmed and have a mutual relationship by benefitting each other.
Commensalism
Where one organism is benefitted from the other, who remains neutral and unharmed from the action.
Parasitism
Where one organism is a host and helps the other survive by allowing it to thrive in the human body, providing the parasite with sources that affect the host negatively.
Biodiversity
A category that defines the way ecosystems and populations live and the variety/changes in the ecosystem. These can show how a community/ecosystem deals with these changes. (Species Richness, Relative Abundance, and Species Evenness.)
Species Richness
The amount and variety of species in an ecosystem.
Relative Abundance
The amount/percentage of species in an ecosystems that show the distribution and ration of each specie/population, which helps determine a species evenness.
Species Evenness
The balance of each population of species, where you need to determine if a species is dominating or not. If a species is this can cause a decline in a food web or unbalanced ecosystem.
Foundation Species
These are organisms that could rank on any food web that keeps the ecosystem together and running. The species help ecosystems maintain their balance and prevent them from declining environmentally.
Keystone Species
These are species or animals that help keep the food web together and maintain a balance between the populations of animals around them.
Environmental Disturbance
These are events that have occurred that have changed an ecosystem and their habitat, a lot of these causes are due to human activities ( fires, deforestation, flooding, etc. ) which forces the ecosystem out of their environment.
Primary Succession
A process where at first there was just rock on the surface, which allowed the very first soil to form. Primary Succession is when substances or organisms help break down rocks and the land before it (no soil, just plain rock) to grow environments or ecosystem and form sustainable land for life.
Pioneer Species
These species are organisms that help weather and decay rocks/the base of the Earth, which allows soil and land to form for living organisms. ( ex. lichens )
Climax Community
The results of succession and this is the end point of when an ecosystem is recovering and rebalancing from an environment that is formed after an environmental disturbance.
Ecosystem
A community of organisms which interact with each other environmentally or physically, and these cycles can help animals survive and stay at a balance in food chains/webs.
Equilibrium
The way an ecosystem maintains its balance abiotically or biotically.
Resistance
How much an ecosystem keeps its equilibrium from a disturbance or a change.
Resilience
How fast an ecosystem recovers from the change or disturbance that has recently occurred.
Food Chain
A process that shows how energy is passed through one species to another.
Food Web
A process that shows the relationship and the interactions, including energy of which between species, the variety of prey and predators connect within the ecosystem. This can help show dominance or decline in populations if there are many animals requiring the same niche.
Trophic Level
A level or status of where an animal stands, these can be displayed in food pyramids, chains, or webs. These vary in categories such as, Producers, Primary Consumers, Secondary Consumers, Tertiary Consumers, and at top Quaternary Consumers.
Producer
Plants or Photosynthetic species that can make their own food/energy.
Primary Consumer
Mostly herbivores that feed on the producer trophic level.
Secondary Consumer
Majority of these populations are carnivores that feed on the primary consumer trophic level.
Tertiary Consumer
Carnivores that are in a high trophic level and feed on secondary consumers but not at the top necessarily.
Quaternary Consumer
Carnivores or Apex carnivores that are at the top and are the biggest threat, which feed on tertiary consumers, with hardly any predators/threats because the consumer is at the highest trophic level.
Autotroph
Producers/plants that can make its own energy using photosynthesis or organic molecules. ( also helps start an ecosystem, without it = no life on Earth )
Gross Primary Productivity
Energy that is gained or consumed before deductions.
Net Primary Productivity
Energy that is consumed or gained after deductions, related to the 10% rule.
Biomagnification
When a substance or infection is spread by consumption through an ecosystem by the food chain and web.
Biogeochemical Cycle
A cycle of organic molecules and how they form geographically, which helps show how these gases are being produced at a consistent rate.
CHNOPS
Common Elements in living organic molecules in which using the acronym, C = Carbon, H = Hydrogen, N = Nitrogen, O = Oxygen, P = Phosphorus, S = Sulfur.
Hydrosphere
The amount of water on a planet under or over the surface.
Water Cycle
A process of making water and how it travels on the Earth. These can include using natural resources to make water, in which there are many steps such as Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Run-off, etc.
Evaporation
A process in which the sun turnsn some bodies of water into water vapor that travels into Condensation.
Condensation
A process that receives water vapor and condenses these gas molecules into liquid like materials like clouds that creates and helps precipitation.
Precipitation
After the process of condensation, the liquids of these materials (clouds from condensation) are released into forms of water such as, snow, sleet, rain, and hail.
Run-off
A process after precipitation where the water is able to travel down due to the gravitational pull and can end up in rivers, streams, oceans, etc. These are rare occasions and only occur when there is heavy rainfall or saturated soil.
Carbon Cycle
A process in which can occur almost everyday between interactions animals/humans and plants where they plants exchange CO2 as a waste product and humans release O as a waste product. There are other ways to exchange carbon plant and animals dying with these store carbon and then released from human activities. (fires, burning fossil fuels, agricultural activities, etc.) These molecules are then either in the atmosphere or absorbed by plants from photosynthesis, therefore continuing this process.
Carbon Sink
An area underneath the surface of the Earth where it holds more carbon under the Earth than the amount of carbon that they are releasing.
Carbon Store
Instead of absorbing carbon, this is a method of collecting/removing carbon dioxide from human/natural activities and storing them in reservoirs.
Carbon Source
Anything that produces more carbon in the atmosphere than it collects and stores.
Nitrogen Cycle
A process in which either animals or living organisms consume nitrogen and pass it down their food web. The initial process of this is when nitrogen is capable of being used by plants through their roots that are connected to the soil, once these compounds are accessed it creates protein and essential nutrients for the plant cell. Because animals need a natural resource of food, they eat the plants and continue this process from passing down the energy/molecules down the food web. Once the animals are at their last stage, they die and decomposers/fungi dissolve those organic materials back in the soil for use again, in some case however, the nitrogen may be released back into the atmosphere.
Eutrophication
A process where algae or other plants grow at extreme rates and die, which are then broken down by decomposers. After this decaying process, many of the decomposers rely on oxygen, which as a result removes most of the oxygen in the body of water. These create what is called a dead zone, this makes plants and animals unsustainable to live there and with this process excess nitrogen and phosphorus are released into bodies of water.
Phosphorus Cycle
A constant process where Phosphorus is exchanged/travelled because of surface runoff, and originates from mineral dust/volcanic ash/aerosols. These particles are then exchanged into the ocean because of the runoff and this allows organisms that are sea based to consume this. Because these molecules enter/dissolve from decomposers/animals into this environment, the oxygen is used up which then supports the main cause of Eutrophication and creates dead zones.
Sulfur Cycle
A process where sulfur dioxide is formed by decomposition of molecules, volcanic activity/geothermal vents, or burning fossil fuels by human activity. This is when the sulfer dioxide can be transported by precipitation, fallout, rock weathering, or geothermal vents. Afterward, the rocks begin to weather/decay from the source of uplifting ocean sediments, which allow sulfur to be released into the soil. Because the sulfur is in the soil, plants are able to use these compounds as a food/energy source and allow the sulfur to be travelled across food webs. Eventually, the plants will die and start to decompose, where then the molecules are released back into the atmosphere as a compound called hydrogen sulfide.
