Ecology Study Guide

Front 1

ecology

Back 1

study of living things interacting in their environment

Front 2

organism

Back 2

an individual living thing....like an aligator

Front 3

population

Back 3

a group of the same species that live in one area

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community

Back 4

a group of different species that live together in one area

Front 5

ecosystem

Back 5

includes all living and non-living things in a given area

Front 6

biotic

Back 6

the living or was once living parts of an ecosystem

Front 7

abiotic factors

Back 7

the non-living parts of the environment

Front 8

keystone species

Back 8

the species in the ecosystem that have a large effect on it. They increase bio-diversity.

Front 9

food chain

Back 9

a flow of energy through an ecosystem

Front 10

producer

Back 10

organism that trap the sun's energy and use it to make their own food.

Front 11

autotrophic

Back 11

able to make their own food - examples are: plants, plankton, and algae

Front 12

chemosynthesis

Back 12

when organisms use chemicals as energy source to make their own food

Front 13

heterotrophic

Back 13

using others as a food source

Front 14

consumer

Back 14

organisms that obtain their energy from consuming another organism

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herbivore

Back 15

eat plants only - examples are: cows, rabbits, insects

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carnivore

Back 16

eats meat only - examples are: lions and owls

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omnivore

Back 17

eat plants and meat - examples are: humans and bears

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detritivore

Back 18

consumer that eats dead organism matter - examples are: millipedes and worms

Front 19

decomposers

Back 19

detritivores that eat dead organisms and return to the nutrients of the soil

Front 20

specialist

Back 20

feeds on a particular food. their diet is limited.

Front 21

generalist

Back 21

feeds on a variety of foods

Front 22

List of trophic levels

Back 22

primary producer - plants

outernary consumer - top carnivores

primary consumer - herbivores

secondary consumer - carnivores that eat herbivores

tertiary consumer - carnivore that eats secondary consumers

Front 23

Food Web

Back 23

show interconnecting food chains

Front 24

what do we see from an energy pyramid and how much energy is passed on?

Back 24

the energy is passed on. 10% energy is passed on.

Front 25

Biomass

Back 25

the dry tissue weight of an organism

Front 26

how do we measure biomass?

Back 26

grams per area

Front 27

what is the pyramid of numbers?

Back 27

it shows the actual count of individual organisms at each trophic level.

Front 28

habitat

Back 28

a place where an ecosystem lives

Front 29

ecological niche

Back 29

an organism's role or job in the ecosystem. Food, abiotic conditions and behavior are looked at.

Front 30

competitive exclusion

Back 30

when two species are competing for the same resources

Front 31

niche partitioning

Back 31

dividing the niche and one species may be better for forcing the other into a new niche or force extinction

Front 32

predation

Back 32

process by which one organism captures and feeds upon another organism. Examples are: shark and small fish.

Front 33

parasitism

Back 33

one organism benefits and another is harmed. Example is: leaches and human.

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mutualism

Back 34

both organisms benefit from the relationship. Examples: bees and flowers

Front 35

commensalism

Back 35

relationship where one benefits and the other is unaffected. Examples are: whales and barnacles.

Front 36

population density

Back 36

the measurement of the number of individuals living in a defined space. The number of individuals divided by the area equals the population density area.

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three types of population dispersions

Back 37

Clumped

Uniform

Random

Front 38

what can change a population size?

Back 38

birth, immigration, death, and emigration

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experimental growth

Back 39

increases dramatically over a period of time

Front 40

logistic growth.

Back 40

when populations face limited resources..

Front 41

carrying capacity

Back 41

when an environment has the maximum number of individuals that it can normally hold based on the valuable resources.

Front 42

limiting factor

Back 42

keeps the population from growing too big

Front 43

limiting factors that are density-dependent

Back 43

competition, predation, parasitism, and disease

Front 44

density independent factors

Back 44

unusual weather, natural disaster, and human activities