Keywords For Ecology Exam Ii

Front 1

the individuals of a species within a given area

Back 1

population

Front 2

a subdivision within a population having restricted exchange of individuals with the remainder of the population

Back 2

subpopulations

Front 3

the density and spacing of individuals within a suitable habitat and the proportions of individuals in each age class

Back 3

population structure

Front 4

the change in ecological systems, especially applied to populations, over time because of births, deaths, and movement of individuals

Back 4

dynamic behavior

Front 5

the geographic range of a population or other ecological unit.

Back 5

distribution

Front 6

the distribution of a population in space

Back 6

geographic range

Front 7

the spacing of individuals in a population with respect to one another.

Back 7

dispersion

Front 8

distribution of individuals in discrete groups (i.e. tendency for association)

Back 8

clumped distribution

Front 9

distribution in which each individual maintains a minimum distance between itself and its neighbors

Back 9

spaced distribution

Front 10

the condition in which individuals are distributed throughout a homogeneous area without regard to the presence of others

Back 10

random distribution

Front 11

views a population as a set of subpopulations occupying patches of a particular habitat type, between which individuals move occasionally

Back 11

metapopulation model

Front 12

the intervening habitat surrounding suitable habitat patches for a particular species which is viewed only as a barrier to the movement of individuals between subpopulations

Back 12

habitat matrix

Front 13

a depiction of population structure (which assumes that there are differences in the quality of patches of the suitable habitat type) in which some subpopulations produce excess offspring (---) and others would decline in size without immigration (---)

Back 13

source-sink model

Front 14

a depiction of subpopulations in which movement between patches is influenced by the types of intervening habitats

Back 14

landscape model

Front 15

the number of individuals per unit of area

Back 15

density

Front 16

method of estimating the size of a population by the recapture of marked individuals

Back 16

mark-recapture

Front 17

study of populations (i.e. their age structure and growth rate)

Back 17

demography

Front 18

when young individuals are added to the population continuously and a plot of the population increase as a function of time forms a smooth curve

Back 18

exponential growth

Front 19

periodic increase or decrease in a population in which the increment is proportional to the number of individuals at the beginning of the period

Back 19

geometric growth

Front 20

a summary by age of the survivorship and fecundity of individuals in a population. It can be used to model the addition and removal of individuals in a local population (in the absence of immigration and emigration)

Back 20

life table

Front 21

the rate at which an individual produces offspring

Back 21

fecundity

Front 22

the probability of living from one age or time period (x) to the next

Back 22

survival (sx)

Front 23

proportion of newborn individuals alive at age x

Back 23

survivorship (lx)

Front 24

life table that follows the fate of a group of individuals born at the same time from birth to the death of the last individual

Back 24

cohort life table

Front 25

life table that considers the survival of individuals of known age during a single time interval

Back 25

static life table

Front 26

represents the number of individuals that the environment can support

Back 26

carrying capacity (K)

Front 27

the mathematical expression for a particular sigmoid growth curve in which the percentage rate of increase decreases in linear fashion as population size increases

Back 27

logistic equation

Front 28

the point at which a logistic or other sigmoid growth curve changes from its accelerating to its decelerating phase

Back 28

inflection point

Front 29

having an influence on the individuals in a population that varies with the degree of crowding within the population

Back 29

density-dependent factors

Front 30

having an influence on the individuals in a population that does not vary with the degree of crowding within a population

Back 30

density-independent factors

Front 31

in populations of plants limited by space or other resources, the characteristic relationship between average plant weight and density

Back 31

self-thinning curve

Front 32

when the logarithm of average plant weight is plotted as a function of the logarithm of density, the data points recorded during the growing season fall on a line with a slope of approximately ____

Back 32

-3/2 power law

Front 33

fluctuation in population size with regular intervals between high and low numbers

Back 33

periodic cycles

Front 34

delays in the response of birth and death rates to changes in the environment

Back 34

time delays

Front 35

regularly fluctuating through a fixed cycle above and below some mean value

Back 35

oscillate

Front 36

cycling with progressively smaller amplitude, as in some populations approaching their equilibria

Back 36

damped oscillation

Front 37

stable oscillations in which numbers bounce back and forth between high and low values

Back 37

limit cycles

Front 38

oscillations with complex, unpredictable forms caused by increasing r. erratic change in the size of populations governed by difference equations having high intrinsic rates of growth

Back 38

chaos