Unit 2 Vocab

Question 1

The action or process of adapting or being adapted.

Answer 1

Adaption

Question 2

Refers to a characteristic or feature of an organism that enhances its survival or reproductive success in a particular environment.

Answer 2

Adaptive Trait

Question 3

Of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature.

Answer 3

Anthropogenic

Question 4

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Answer 4

Biodiversity

Question 5

The nonmaterial benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment and educational, recreational and aesthetic experiences.

Answer 5

Cultural Service

Question 6

Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.

Answer 6

Disruption

Question 7

The interruption of a settled and peaceful condition.

Answer 7

Disturbance

Question 8

A _______________ is a method of measuring how many different types there are in a dataset. Some more sophisticated indices also account for the phylogenetic relatedness among the types.

Answer 8

Diversity Index

Question 9

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Answer 9

Ecosystem

Question 10

___________________ are the various benefits that humans derive from healthy ecosystems. These ecosystems, when functioning well, offer such things as provision of food, natural pollination of crops, clean air and water, decomposition of wastes, or flood control.

Answer 10

Ecosystem Services

Question 11

Factors in a person’s surroundings or environment that cause emotional or mental strain in their lives.

Answer 11

Environmental Stress

Question 12

Containing or consisting of a series of loosely connected parts or events.

Answer 12

Episodic

Question 13

A process that results in changes in the genetic material of a population over time.

Answer 13

Evolution

Question 14

A person competent in several different fields or activities.

Answer 14

Generalist

Question 15

__________________ is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It ranges widely, from the number of species to differences within species, and can be correlated to the span of survival for a species.

Answer 15

Genetic Diversity

Question 16

Explores the variations in ecosystems within a specific geographic area. In general, the variety of distinct habitats found in an ecosystem or biome is referred to as _____________________.

Answer 16

Habitat Diversity

Question 17

____________________ are defined as species which can provide information on ecological changes and give early warning signals regarding ecosystem processes in site-specific conditions due to their sensitive reactions to them.

Answer 17

Indicator Species

Question 18

______________________ is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species richness and diversification of isolated natural communities. The theory was originally developed to explain the pattern of the species–area relationship occurring in oceanic islands.

Answer 18

Island Biogeography

Question 19

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

Answer 19

Keystone Species

Question 20

A ______________ is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system.

Answer 20

Limiting Factor

Question 21

Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another.

Answer 21

Migration

Question 22

The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.

Answer 22

Natural Selection

Question 23

Appearing or occurring at intervals.

Answer 23

Periodic

Question 24

___________________ are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession.

Answer 24

Pioneer Species

Question 25

A __________________ or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as genocide, speciocide, widespread violence or intentional culling.

Answer 25

Population Bottleneck

Question 26

______________________ is the beginning step of ecological succession where species known as pioneer species colonize an uninhabited site, which usually occurs in an environment devoid of vegetation and other organisms.

Answer 26

Primary Succession

Question 27

Any type of benefit to people that can be extracted from nature.

Answer 27

Provisioning Service

Question 28

Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from healthy ecosystems. These ecosystems, when functioning well, offer such things as provision of food, natural pollination of crops, clean air and water, decomposition of wastes, or flood control.

Answer 28

Regulating Service

Question 29

The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

Answer 29

Resilience

Question 30

The refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.

Answer 30

Resistance

Question 31

______________________ is the secondary ecological succession of a plant's life.

Answer 31

Secondary Succession

Question 32

A person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity; a person highly skilled in a specific and restricted field.

Answer 32

Specialist

Question 33

________________ is the number of different species that are represented in a given community. The effective number of species refers to the number of equally abundant species needed to obtain the same mean proportional species abundance as that observed in the dataset of interest.

Answer 33

Species Diversity

Question 34

_____________ describes the commonness or rarity of a species; it requires knowing the abundance of each species relative to those of the other species within the community. Abundance values can be difficult to obtain.

Answer 34

Species Evenness

Question 35

____________________ is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region.

Answer 35

Species Richness

Question 36

Services that maintain fundamental ecosystem processes, such as habitat for plants and wildlife, or the maintenance of genetic and biological diversity.

Answer 36

Supporting Service

Question 37

The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

Answer 37

Tolerance