Raven Bio 112 Chapter 56

Front 1

Community

Back 1

An assemblage of species living close enough together for potential interactions.

Front 2

Interspecific Interactions

Back 2

Relationships between the species of a community, linked by competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism, commensalism.

Front 3

Interspecific competition

Back 3

Limited resources that are in short supply that two species will compete for.

Front 4

Competitive exclusion principle

Back 4

Two species with similar needs for same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place.

Front 5

Ecological niche

Back 5

The sum of an organism's use of abiotic/ biotic resources in the environment.

Front 6

Niche

Back 6

An organism's role in the environment.

Front 7

Resource partitioning

Back 7

The differentiation of niches that enables two similar species to coexist in a community.

Front 8

Character displacement

Back 8

The tendency for characteristics to be more divergent in sympatric populations of two species that in allopatric populations of the same two species.

Front 9

Predation

Back 9

A predator eats prey.

Front 10

Herbivores

Back 10

Animals that eat plants.

Front 11

Parasitism

Back 11

Predators live on/in a host and depend upon the host for nutrition.

Front 12

Predator adaptations

Back 12

Claws, teeth, fangs, poison, heat-sensing organs, speed, and agility.

Front 13

Plant defenses

Back 13

Chemical compounds, that are toxic, spines, color warning, etc.

Front 14

Behavioral defenses

Back 14

Fleeing, hiding, self-defense (biting, stinging, appearing larger), noises, and mobbing.

Front 15

Faking injury

Back 15

Animals that play dead or injured to either deter or distract predators.

Front 16

Camouflage

Back 16

Cryptic coloration (blending in), deceptive warning.

Front 17

Mechanical defenses

Back 17

Adaptations such as spines.

Front 18

Chemical defenses

Back 18

Defenses such as odors and toxins.

Front 19

Aposematic coloration

Back 19

Warning colors that indicate other defenses such as toxins.

Front 20

Mimicry

Back 20

When non-venomous species resemble other potentially lethal species.

Front 21

Batesian mimicry

Back 21

A harmless species mimics a harmful one.

Front 22

Müllerian mimicry

Back 22

Two or more unpalatable species resemble each other.

Front 23

Parasite

Back 23

An organism that derives nourishment from a host, which is harmed in the process.

Front 24

Endoparasites

Back 24

Parasites that live inside the host (tapeworm).

Front 25

Ectoparasites

Back 25

Parasites that on the surface of the host (ticks).

Front 26

Parasitoidism

Back 26

A type of parasitism that leads to the parasite eventually killing the host.

Front 27

Pathogens

Back 27

Parasites that carry diseases, which are considered predators.

Front 28

Mutualism

Back 28

Two species that benefit from their interaction (fish/shrimp).

Front 29

Commensalism

Back 29

One species that benefits from the interaction, but the other is not affected.

Front 30

Coevolution

Back 30

When one species evolves, it exacts selective pressure on the other to evolve to continue the interaction.

Front 31

Food chain

Back 31

The transfer of food energy in photosynthetic organisms through herbivores and carnivores.

Front 32

Charles Elton

Back 32

Scientist who proposed about the length of food chains in tropic levels, and that food chains are hooked into food webs.

Front 33

Tropic levels

Back 33

Levels of a food stage (Primary producer, Primary consumer, Secondary consumer, etc...).

Front 34

Energetic hypothesis

Back 34

The length of a food chain is limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer along the chain.

Front 35

Dynamic stability hypothesis

Back 35

Longer food chains are less stable than short chains.

Front 36

Dominant species

Back 36

The species in a community that has the highest abundance or highest biomass (sum weight).

Front 37

Keystone species

Back 37

Species that exert an important regulating effect on other species in a community (prairie dogs).

Front 38

Disturbances

Back 38

Events such as fires or severe weather or human activities that can alter communities.

Front 39

Human Disturbances

Back 39

Human disturbances are more frequent that natural ones, and reduce species diversity.

Front 40

Ecological succession

Back 40

The transition in species composition over ecological time.

Front 41

Primary succession

Back 41

The process of biodiversity development through the formation of soil.

Front 42

Secondary succession

Back 42

An existing community has been cleared, but the soil remains, causing grasses and other plants to grow first, then trees and other organisms.