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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Genotype |
The genetic constitution, or set of alleles, of an individual organism |
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Phenotype |
the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment |
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Genetic Drift |
A process in which chance events cause unpredictable fluctuations in allele frequencies from one generation to the next. Effects of ________ are most pronounced in small populations. |
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Gene Flow |
In population genetics, _________ (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another. Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies (the proportion of members carrying a particular variant of a gene). |
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Artificial Selection |
The breeding of plants and animals to produce desirable traits. Organisms with the desired traits, such as size or taste, are artificially mated or cross-pollinated with organisms with similar desired traits. |
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Convergent Evolution |
The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages. |
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Coevolution |
The joint evolution of two interacting species, each in response to selection imposed by the other. |
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Reproductive Isolation |
The existence of biological factors (barriers) that impede members of two species from producing viable, fertile offspring. |
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Allopatric Speciation |
a fancy name for speciation by geographic isolation. In this mode of speciation, something extrinsic to the organisms prevents two or more groups from mating with each other regularly, eventually causing that lineage to speciate. |
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Sympatric Speciation |
The formation of new species in populations that live in the same geographic area. |
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Cryptic Coloration |
Coloration that allows an organism to match its background and hence become less vulnerable to predation or recognition by prey. |
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Aposematic Coloration |
(of the coloration of certain distasteful or poisonous animals) characterized by bright conspicuous markings, which predators recognize and learn to avoid; warning |
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Mimicry |
the close external resemblance of an organism, the mimic, to a different organism, the model, such that the mimic benefits from themistaken identity, as seeming to be unpalatable or harmful. |
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Energetic Hypothesis |
The concept that the length of a food chain is limited by the ineffieciency of energy transfer along the chain. |
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Character Displacement |
refers to the phenomenon where differences among similar species whose distributions overlap geographically are accentuated in regions where the species co-occur, but are minimized or lost where the species' distributions do not overlap. |
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Shared Derived Character |
An evolutionary novelty that is unique to a particular clade. |
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Shared Ancestral Character |
A character, shared by members of a particular clade, that originated in an ancestor that is not a member of that clade. |
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Homoplasy (similar structure) |
A similar (analogous) structure or molecular sequence that has evolved independently in two species. |
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Taxa |
a taxonomic group of any rank, such as a species, family, or class |
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Clade |
a group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor. A _______ is equivalent to a monophyletic group. |
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Molecular Clock |
A method for estimating the time required for a given amount of evolutionary change, based on the observation that some regions of genomes evolve at constant rates. |
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Abiotic Environment |
In biology and ecology, abiotic components or, abiotic factors, are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and phenomena associated with them underpin all biology. |
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Evapotranspiration |
The total evapotranspiration of water from an ecosystem, including water transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape, usually measured in millimeters and estimated for a year. |
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Symbiotic |
In biology, refers to any diverse organisms that live together, but in this case, the relationship is not necessarily beneficial to both. Parasites, for example, have a _________ relationship with their hosts, but only the parasite benefits. |
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Mutualism |
the doctrine that mutual dependence is necessary to social well-being. |
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Parasitism |
non-mutual symbiotic relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. |
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Commensalism |
an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm. |
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Keystone Predator |
An essential predator in an ecosystem. Without the __________, the herbivorous prey would explode in numbers, wipe out the dominant plants, and dramatically alter the character of the ecosystem. |
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Logistic Growth Model |
In ____________ (1) over time the population size increases until the population size equals the carrying capacity and then the population size remains at the carrying capacity and (2) populations initially grow slowly and over time the population growth rate increases until it reaches a maximum (at N = 1/2k). |
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K-selection |
Selection for life history traits that are sensitive to population density; also called density-dependent selection. |
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r-selection |
Selection for life history traits that maximize reproductive success in uncrowded environments; also called density-independent selection. |
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r (the rate of population change) |
The difference between the birth and death rate. |
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Carrying Capacity |
the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation, represented by the symbol K. |
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Demographic Transition |
refers to the transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. |
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Territoriality |
A behavior in which an animal defends a bounded physical space against encroachment by other individuals, usually of its own species. |