Ecology

Front 1

Magellen

Back 1

observation of plant geography/distribution

Similar climates = similar plants

Front 2

Von Humboldt

Back 2

First studies of relationships between organisms and their environments

Described vegetation zones using latitude and elevation above sea level

Front 3

Haekckel

Back 3

coined the term "oekologie" for the relationship of animals to their environment

Front 4

Tansley

Back 4

coined the term "ecosystem" and urged a more experimental approach to the study of ecology

Front 5

population

Back 5

group of individual of the same species that are living together in the same area

distribution and abundance, survival and change over time

Front 6

Community

Back 6

population of all the different species living in the same area

coevolution, food chain, competition, structure, biodiversity

Front 7

ecosystem

Back 7

community of organisms and abiotic factors with which they interact

movement and flow of energy, movement of matter

Front 8

landscape

Back 8

mozaic connecting different kinds of ecosystems

the study of how the spatial arrangement of habitat types affects the distribution and abundance of organisms and ecosystem processes

Front 9

biosphere/ global

Back 9

the entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystem

Front 10

ecology

Back 10

the study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment

Front 11

enviroment

Back 11

abiotic and biotic factors

Front 12

natural history

Back 12

the study of organisms, plants or animals, in their environments

Front 13

abiotic

Back 13

nonliving factors

Front 14

biotic interactions

Back 14

interactions of living things

Front 15

enviromentalist

Back 15

a person who is concerned with the protection of the enviroment

Front 16

dispersal

Back 16

the movement of individuals or gametes away from their parent location. this movement sometimes expands the geographic range of a population or species

Front 17

behavior

Back 17

the sum of an animal's response to external and internal stimuli

Front 18

habitat selection

Back 18

the process or behavior that an animal uses to select a habitat in which to live

Front 19

biome

Back 19

broad scale distribution of different life forms

Front 20

climate

Back 20

the long-term prevailing weather conditions at a given place

Front 21

isotherm

Back 21

equal temperature at a given date or time at a given geographic map

Front 22

photoperiod

Back 22

interval in a 24 hour period during which a plant or animal is exposed to light

Front 23

solstice

Back 23

sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator with the equinoxes are connected with the seasons

Front 24

equinox

Back 24

the time or date at which the sun crosses the celestial equator when day and night are of equal length

Front 25

photic zone

Back 25

the narrow top layer of an ocean or lake, where light penetrates sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur

Front 26

aphotic zone

Back 26

the part of an ocean or lake beneath the photic zone, where light does not penetrate sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur

Front 27

thermocline

Back 27

a narrow stratum of abrupt temperature change in the ocean and in many temperature-zone lakes

Front 28

lake stratification

Back 28

separation of the lake into three layers

epilimnion (top), Metalimnion (thermocline), hypolimnion (bottom)

Front 29

benthic

Back 29

the bottom surface of an aquatic environment

Front 30

pelagic

Back 30

part of the open sea or ocean. not near the coast or sea floor

Front 31

littoral

Back 31

in a lake, the shallow, well-lit waters close to shore

Front 32

climograph

Back 32

a plot of the temperature and precipitation in a particular region

Front 33

aspect

Back 33

direction that a slop is facing

Front 34

rainshadow

Back 34

leeward side is dry; windward side is wet

Front 35

microtopography

Back 35

small difference in elevation

Front 36

ecotone

Back 36

the transition from one type of habitat or ecosystem to another, such as the transition from a forest to a grassland

Front 37

tension zone (in WI)

Back 37

between the forested north and prairie/savanna south

Front 38

population density

Back 38

a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume

Front 39

demography

Back 39

the study of changes over time in the vital statistics of populations, especially birth rates and death rates

Front 40

semelparity

Back 40

organism stores all their energy to reproduce once and dies

Front 41

iteroparity

Back 41

reproduce more than once, fewer offspring but repeatedly

Front 42

metapopulation

Back 42

spatially separated population linked by dispersal of individuals

Front 43

demographic transition

Back 43

in a stable population, a shift from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates

Front 44

fundamental niche

Back 44

niche it could potentially occupy

Front 45

realized niche

Back 45

niche it actually occupies

Front 46

aposematic coloration

Back 46

vivid colors= bad taste or poison

Front 47

batesian mimicry

Back 47

unpalatable models, palatable mimics

Front 48

Mullerian mimicry

Back 48

both unpalatable (bad tasting)

Front 49

Symbiosis

Back 49

an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact

Front 50

parasitism

Back 50

a symbiotic relationship in which one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of another, the host, by living either within or on the host

Front 51

endoparasites

Back 51

a parasite that lives within a host

Front 52

ectoparasites

Back 52

a parasite that lives on a host

Front 53

mutualism

Back 53

symbiotic relationship where both species benefit

Front 54

commensalism

Back 54

a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed

Front 55

species richness

Back 55

the number of species in a biological community

Front 56

species relative abundance= evenness

Back 56

the proportional abundance of different species in a community

Front 57

Shannon Diversity Index

Back 57

an index of community diversity symbolized by H and represented by the equation H=-(PAlnA+ PBlnB...)

Front 58

dominant species

Back 58

a species with substantially higher abundance or biomass than other species in a community. they exert a powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species

Front 59

Keystone species

Back 59

a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance

Front 60

ecosystem engineer

Back 60

an organism that influences community structure by causing physical changes in the environment

Front 61

Invasive species

Back 61

a species often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range

Front 62

colony collapse disorder

Back 62

mass disappearance of worker honey bees from the hive. The result is a breakdown of the colony and insufficient workers are present to maintain the colony

Front 63

disturbance

Back 63

a natural or human-caused event that changes a biological community and usually removes organisms from it. Fires and storms play a pivotal role in structuring many communities

Front 64

biological legacy

Back 64

What still remains after a destructive event and is important for the recovery of the habitat

Front 65

succession

Back 65

the process by which a plant or animal community successively gives way to another until a stable climax is reached

Front 66

primary succession

Back 66

occurs in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and usually lacks soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glaciers

Front 67

secondary succession

Back 67

occurs on a preexisting soil after an area has been disrupted or destroyed due to a disturbance that reduced the population of the initial inhabitants

Front 68

successional pathway

Back 68

a series of vegetation types in a given area

Front 69

serotiny

Back 69

ecological adaptation exhibited by some seed plants, in which seed release occurs in response to an environmental trigger, rather than spontaneously at seed maturation. Usually Fire

Front 70

biogeography

Back 70

graphical distribution of plants and animals

Front 71

species-area curve

Back 71

the biodiversity pattern that shows that the larger the geographic area of a community is, the more species it has

Front 72

trophic structure

Back 72

the different feeding relationships in an ecosystem, which determine the route of energy flow and the pattern of chemical cycling

Front 73

primary producer

Back 73

an autotroph, usually a photosynthetic organism. Collectively, autotrophs make up the trophic level of an ecosystem that ultimately supports all other levels.

Front 74

primary comsumer

Back 74

an herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs

Front 75

tertiary consumer

Back 75

a carnivore that eats other carnivores

Front 76

detritivore

Back 76

a consumer that derives its energy and nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms; a decomposer.

Front 77

decomposer

Back 77

an organism that absorbs nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms and converts them to inorganic forms; a detritivore

Front 78

detritus

Back 78

dead organic matter

Front 79

food chain

Back 79

the pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers

Front 80

food web

Back 80

the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem

Front 81

trophic level

Back 81

several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy

Front 82

primary production

Back 82

the amount of light energy converted to chemical energy by the autotrophs in an ecosystem during a given time period

Front 83

gross primary production

Back 83

the total primary production of an ecosystem

Front 84

net primary production

Back 84

the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by all autotrophs and heterotrophs for respiration

Front 85

biomass

Back 85

the total mass of organic matter comprising a group of organisms in a particular habitat

Front 86

standing crop

Back 86

a growing crop

Front 87

limiting nutrient

Back 87

an element that must be added for production to increase in a particular area

Front 88

secondary production

Back 88

the amount of chemical energy in consumers' food that is converted to their own new biomass during a given time period

Front 89

production efficiency

Back 89

the percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is not used for respiration or eliminated as waste

Front 90

trophic efficiency

Back 90

the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next

Front 91

energy pyramid

Back 91

energy flow in a community

Front 92

biomass pyramid

Back 92

the relationship between biomass or biological productivity and trophic leves

Front 93

bioenergy

Back 93

the overall flow and transformation of energy in an organism

Front 94

biological maginification

Back 94

process that certain substances such as pesticides or heavy metals move up the food chain, work their way into rivers or lakes, and are eaten by aquatic organisms such as fish, which in turn are eaten by large birds, animals or humans

Front 95

biogeochemical cycle

Back 95

any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems

Front 96

mineralization

Back 96

turning organic matter into inorganic matter

Front 97

hypoxia

Back 97

deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues

Front 98

eutrophication

Back 98

a process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae or cyanobacteria

Front 99

nonpoint source pollution

Back 99

water and air pollution from diffuse sources. like agricultural runoff

Front 100

watershed

Back 100

and area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, seas.

Front 101

Milankovitch cycle

Back 101

long term variations in the orbit of earth which result in changes in climate over periods hundred of thousands of years and are related to ice age cycles

Front 102

paleoecology

Back 102

ecology of fossil animals and plants

Front 103

biodiversity

Back 103

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

Front 104

landscape ecology

Back 104

the study of how the spatial arrangement of habitat types affects the distribution and abundance of organisms and ecosystem processes

Front 105

restoration ecology

Back 105

intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health integrity and sustainability

Front 106

conservation biology

Back 106

the integrated study of ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, molecular biology, and genetics to sustain biological civersity at all levels

Front 107

ecosystem services

Back 107

a function performed by an ecosystem that directly or indirectly benefits humans

Front 108

sustainable development

Back 108

development that meets the needs of people today without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs

Front 109

overexploitation

Back 109

the overuse of wildlife and plant species by people for food, clothing, pets, medicine, sports and many other purposes