Ap Environmental Science Vocabulary, Ch.3

Front 1

What is ecology?

Back 1

The study of connections in nature.

Front 2

What are organisms?

Back 2

The different forms of life on earth can be classified into different species based on certain characteristics.

Front 3

What is a species?

Back 3

Groups of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, behavior, chemistry and genetic makeup.

Front 4

What is a population?

Back 4

Population is a group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area.

Front 5

What is genetic diversity?

Back 5

Genetic diversity means variability in the genetic makeup among individuals within a single species.

Front 6

What is habitat?

Back 6

A place or type of place where an organism or population of organisms lives.

Front 7

What is distribution or range?

Back 7

The area over which a species can be found.

Front 8

What is community or biological community?

Back 8

Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time.

Front 9

What is an ecosystem?

Back 9

Community of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up its nonliving environment.

Front 10

What is the biosphere?

Back 10

Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and lithosphere.

Front 11

What is the atmosphere?

Back 11

Mass of air surrounding the earth.

Front 12

What is the troposphere?

Back 12

Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains about 75% of the mass of the earth's air and extends about 17 kilometers above sea level.

Front 13

What is the stratosphere?

Back 13

Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48 kilometers above the earth's surface. It contains small amounts of gaseous ozone , which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful UV radiation emitted by the sun.

Front 14

What is the hydrosphere?

Back 14

Earth's liquid water, frozen water, and water vapor in the atmosphere.

Front 15

What is the lithosphere?

Back 15

Outer shell of the earth, composed of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle outside the asthenosphere; material found in the earth's plates.

Front 16

What is the natural greenhouse effect?

Back 16

Heat building up in the troposphere because of the presence of certain gases, called greenhouse gases.

Front 17

What are biomes?

Back 17

Terrestrial regions inhabited by certain types of life, especially vegetation.

Front 18

What are aquatic life zones?

Back 18

Marine and freshwater portions of the biosphere.

Front 19

What do abiotic and biotic mean?

Back 19

Abiotic- nonliving. biotic- living organism.

Front 20

What is a range of tolerance?

Back 20

Range of chemical and physical conditions that must be maintained for populations of a particular species to stay alive and grow, develop, and function normally.

Front 21

What is a limiting factor?

Back 21

Single factor that limits the growth, abundance, or distribution of the population of a species in an ecosystem.

Front 22

What are producers or autotrophs?

Back 22

Organism that uses solar energy or chemical energy to manufacture the organic compounds it needs as nutrients from simple inorganic compounds obtained from its environment.

Front 23

What is photosynthesis?

Back 23

Complex process that takes place in cells of green plants.

Front 24

What is chemosynthesis?

Back 24

Process in which certain organisms extract inorganic compounds from their environment and convert them into organic nutrient compounds without the presence of sunlight.

Front 25

What is a consumer or heterotrophs?

Back 25

Organism that cannot synthesize the organic nutrients it needs and gets its organic nutrients by feeding on the tissues of producers or of other consumers.

Front 26

What are omnivores?

Back 26

Animal that can use both plants and other animals as food sources.

Front 27

What are decomposes?

Back 27

Organism that digests parts of dead organisms and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms by breaking down the complex organic molecules in those materials into simpler inorganic compounds and then absorbing the soluble nutrients.

Front 28

What are detritivores?

Back 28

Consumer organism that feeds on detritus, parts of dead organisms, and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms.

Front 29

What is aerobic respiration?

Back 29

Complex process that occurs in the cells of most living organisms, in which nutrient organic molecules such as glucose combine with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water and energy.

Front 30

What is anaerobic respiration or fermentation?

Back 30

Form of cellular respiration in which some decomposers get the energy they need through the breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen.

Front 31

What is biodiversity?

Back 31

Variety of different species, genetic variability among individuals within each species, variety of ecosystems, and functions such as energy flow and matter cycling needed for the survival of species and biological communities.

Front 32

What is the food chain?

Back 32

Series of organisms in which each eats or decomposes the preceding one.

Front 33

What is the trophic level?

Back 33

All organisms that are the same number of energy transfers away from the original source of energy that enters an ecosystem.

Front 34

What is a food web?

Back 34

Complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships.

Front 35

What is biomass?

Back 35

Organic matter produced by plants and other photosynthetic producers.

Front 36

What is gross primary productivity?

Back 36

Rate at which an ecosystem's producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time.

Front 37

What is net primary productivity?

Back 37

Rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy.

Front 38

What is soil?

Back 38

Complex mixture of inorganic materials, decaying organic matter, water, air, and living organisms.

Front 39

What is weathering?

Back 39

Physical and chemical processes in which solid rock exposed at earth's surface is changed to separate solid particles and dissolved material, which can then be moved to another place as sediment.

Front 40

What are soil horizons?

Back 40

Horizontal zones that make up a particular mature soil.

Front 41

What is a soil profile?

Back 41

Cross-sectional view of the horizons in a soil.

Front 42

What is humus?

Back 42

Slightly soluble residue of undigested or partially decomposed organic material in topsoil.

Front 43

What is infiltration?

Back 43

Downward movement of water through soil.

Front 44

What is leaching?

Back 44

Process in which various chemicals in upper layers of soil are dissolved and carried to lower layers and, in some cases, to groundwater.

Front 45

What is soil texture?

Back 45

Determined by the relative amounts of the different sizes and types of mineral particles.

Front 46

What are nutrients?

Back 46

Any food or element an organism must take in to live, grow, or reproduce.

Front 47

What are biogeochemical cycles?

Back 47

Natural processes that recycle nutrients in various chemical forms from the nonliving environment to living organisms and back to the nonliving environment.

Front 48

What is the hydrologic cycle?

Back 48

Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth's fixed supply of water from the environment to living organisms and then back to the environment.