Vocabulary- chapter 12

Question 1

Ecology

Answer 1

the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Question 2

abiotic

Answer 2

physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms.

Question 3

biotic

Answer 3

relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.

Question 4

evolutionary adaptation

Answer 4

the adjustment of organisms to their environment in order to improve their chances at survival in that environment.

Question 5

exponential growth

Answer 5

the unrestricted growth of a population of organisms, occurring when resources in its habitat are unlimited.

Question 6

logistic growth

Answer 6

population expansion decreases as resources become scarce, and it levels off when the carrying capacity of the environment is reached

Question 7

carrying capacity

Answer 7

a species’ average population size in a particular habitat.

Question 8

limiting resource

Answer 8

the maximum number of individuals in a population that a habitat can support without environmental degradation

Question 9

competition

Answer 9

the activity or condition of competing.

Question 10

Competitive exclusion

Answer 10

the inevitable elimination from a habitat of one of two different species with identical needs for resources.

Question 11

resource partitioning

Answer 11

the division of resources to avoid interspecific competition for limited resources in an ecosystem

Question 12

ecological niche

Answer 12

the role an organism plays in a community.

Question 13

trophic cascade

Answer 13

powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems

Question 14

stabilizing selection

Answer 14

a form of natural selection wherein individuals with moderate or average phenotypes are more fit

Question 15

directional selection

Answer 15

a mode of natural selection in which a single phenotype is favored, causing the allele frequency to continuously shift in one direction

Question 16

inducible defense

Answer 16

responses activated through a previous encounter with a consumer or competitor that confer some degree of resistance to subsequent attacks.

Question 17

coevolution

Answer 17

reciprocal evolutionary changes brought about by interactions between species

Question 18

commensalism

Answer 18

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

Question 19

parasitism

Answer 19

a relationship between the two living species in which one organism is benefitted at the expense of the other

Question 20

mutualism

Answer 20

association between organisms of two different species in which each benefits

Question 21

recruitment

Answer 21

the process by which new individuals are added to a population, whether by birth and maturation or by immigration