Unit 7 Review Flashcards
What is ecology?
The study of ecosystems, including organisms and their environment
What is a producer?
An organism that makes its own food via photosynthesis or chemosyntesis
What is a consumer?
An organism that needs to consume other organisms for its food.
What is a herbivore?
An organism that feeds on plants.
What is a carnivore?
An organism that feeds on flesh/meat
What is an omnivore?
An organism that feeds on both plants and animals
What is a detritivore?
An organism that feeds on organic waste.
What is a decomposer?
Bacteria or fungi that break down dead organisms
What is an ecosystem?
Contains all biotic and abiotic factors in an area
What is climate?
Average weather in a certain area over time.
Why is water important?
Necessary for life processes, provides habitats, transportation.
What is atmospheric pressure?
Density of air molecules decreases as altitude increases
What are the steps in the nitrogen cycle?
N2 in the air is unusable by most living things, nitrogen is needed for making DNA and protein. N gets into food by nitrogen fixation.
What is nitrogen fixation?
The process by which bacteria living on plant roots convert unusable atmospheric nitrogen into usable nitrogen compounds.
What is a food chain?
Shows a single set of energy flow in an ecosystem.
What is a food web?
A model that shows the complex network of feeding relationships and the flow of energy within an ecosystem.
What are tropic levels?
Levels of hierarchy in an ecosystem determind by feeding relationships.
What is and energy pyramid?
Shows the tropic level of a food web, energy and matter flow because of the ten-percent rule.
What is the ten percent rule?
When organisms consume other organisms, about 10% of the energy/ matter gets transferred, the rest is lost by heat.
What is a joule?
A unit of measurement for energy
What is a population?
All individuals of a species in an area
What is a community?
All the living things in an area
What is a biome?
A collection of ecosystems sharing similar climates/geography
What is the biosphere?
The entire earth and the atmosphere around it.
What is population density?
The number of organisms in a given amount of area
What is competition?
The struggle between organisms to occupy the same habitat with the same resources.
What are limiting factors?
Anything that keeps and organism from growing
What is the carrying capacity?
The largest population that an environment can hold
What is overpopulation?
Happens when population is over the carrying capacity, will result in a drop due to limiting factors.
What is the birth rate?
The amount of offspring produced in a given period of time
What is a death rate?
The amount of deaths in the same period of time
What is immigration?
Moving into a population
What is emigration?
Moving out of a population?
What is exponential growth?
Population increased at a fixed percent each year; results from ideal environment conditions
What is logistic growth?
Population increases in size and levels out at carrying capacity.
What is extinction?
Loss of all member in a species.
What does endangered mean?
A species whose population is at risk of extinction
What does it mean if a species is threatened?
A species is at risk; but not yet endangered.
What is an invasive species?
A nonnative species that outcompetes native species, threatening the food web.
What is a keystone species?
A species that keeps an ecosystem together and stable, the removal of which has a major effect on the ecosystem.
What is biodiversity?
The diversity of species within an ecosystem, or genetics within a species.
What is ecological value?
Species depend on each other
What are human negatives on the environment?
Habitat destruction/fragmentation, poaching, pollution, invasive/nonnative species
What are human positives?
Captive breeding, laws and treaties, habitats preservation, species reintroduction.
What is genetic diversity?
Important with in a species, greater amount of this allow me for a greater ability to adapt to change.
What is a habitat?
The place within an ecosystem where an organism lives and obtains its resources.
What is a niche?
The role an organism plays in its habitat
What is a predator-prey interaction?
One organism kills another for food.
What is a cooperative relationship?
Organisms of the same population work together
What is mutualism?
Both organisms benefit from
What is commensalism?
One organism benefits the other isn’t affected.
What is parasitism?
One organism benefits, the other is harmed.
What is primary succession?
A community is so disturbed there is no life remaining and must be rebuilt from scratch.
What are the two examples of primary succession?
Glacier melts and volcanic eruptions
What is secondary succession?
A community is partially disturbed, so the remaining organisms act as the building blocks
