Vocab

Question 1

abiotic factor

Answer 1

non-living or physical environmental factors. e.g. temperature, light intensity, humidity, wind speed, salinity, pH, water,oxygen, carbon dioxide, mineral levels, substrate.

Question 2

biotic factor

Answer 2

living environmental factors. influences and interactions with other living organisms, which include:
#competition (intraspecific and interspecific)
#exploitation (predation, herbivory, parasitism)
#mutalism

Question 3

physiological tolerance

Answer 3

the range of abiotic factors in which an organism can only inhabit

Question 4

receptor

Answer 4

area in organism which detects particular kind of stimulus, range from simple nerve endings through specialised sensory cells to complex sense organs.
 E.g:
#photoreceptors - light (retina in eye)
#chemoreceptors - chemicals (nose, tongue)
#mechanoreceptors - sound wave vibrations in air or water (cochlea in ear)

Question 5

stimulus

Answer 5

a change in environment

Question 6

chromatophore

Answer 6

cells containing pigment that, by changing their size, cause an animal to change colour, e.g. octopus, squid, cuttleish

Question 7

how does a relay pathway go?

Answer 7

Stimulus –>Receptor—sensory nerve fibres—>Central nervous system (CNS) (brain, spinal chord)—motor nerve fibres—>effector (muscles, glands, cilia/flagella, chromatophore)—>Response (behaviour, movement)

Question 8

innate/instinctive behaviour

Answer 8

behaviour not modified by experience and is thus inflexible and stereotyped; is genetically determined

Question 9

learnt behaviour

Answer 9

behaviour that changes as a result of experience; is flexible and not rigid

Question 10

growth response

Answer 10

achieve plant movement, brought about by slow, permanent changes in cell size

Question 11

turgor response

Answer 11

achieve plant movement, brought about by changes in cell water content, in some cases occur in less than a second (e.g. movement of stomatal guard cells, movement of leaves of the insectivorous plant the Venus fly-trap), reversible

Question 12

structural adaptation

Answer 12

aspects of the structure of the body (what the organism has) - e.g. the prehensile tail of spider monkeys (fifth limb); the large, ridged grinding molars of cows; the large spines of Bougainvillea plants

Question 13

behavioural adaptation

Answer 13

aspects of the behaviour of the organism (what the organism does) - e.g. homing response of domestic pigeons, nightly nest-building in trees by common chimpanzees, stalking of prey by cheetahs

Question 14

physiological adaptation

Answer 14

aspects of the chemical processes of the body (how the organism functions) - e.g. toxin produced by native stinging nettle ongaonga; pheromones produced by ants; anti-goagulants in the saliva of bloodsucking parasites such as leeches and mosquitoes

Question 15

purpose of adaptation

Answer 15

allow the organism to survive and live successfully

Question 16

niche

Answer 16

the way an organism has adapted in response to the habitat in which it lives. Niche = WHERE the organism lives (habitat) + HOW it lives there (adaptations - structural, behavioural, physiological, life cycle).
Niche reflects the ROLE that the organism performs in the biological community that it is a member of.

Question 17

fundamental niche

Answer 17

niche that an organism would occupy if all the necessary environmental conditions were present. the limits to the fundamental niche are set by the limits of an organism’s physiological tolerances to abiotic factors (e.g. temperature, oxygen concentration, substrate)

Question 18

realised niche

Answer 18

the actual niche that an organism occupies. not as extensive as the fundamental niche, with the boundaries of a realised niche typically being set by biotic factors (e.g. predation, interspecific competition)

Question 19

Gause’s principle (competitive exclusion principle)

Answer 19

“No two species with identical niches can co-exist long in the same place.” INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION occurs. one species will outcompete and eliminate the other. the more the niches overlap, the greater the competition