Biology Final - Ecology

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Population ecology

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Population ecology or autoecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. It is the study of how the population sizes of species groups change over time and space.

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Population density

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The number of individuals of a population per unit area or volume of living space.

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Limiting factors

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common limiting factor resources are environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem.

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Carrying capacity

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The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, symbolized as K

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Fundamental niche

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The fundamental niche describes the potential area and resources an organism is capable of using. But the presence of limiting factors such as direct competition with other organisms, the organism tends to occupy a niche narrower than this.

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Realized niche

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The part of fundamental niche that an organism occupies as a result of limiting factors present in its habitat.

The presence of competing species in an environment is one example of a limiting factor that restrains or narrows an organism's ecological niche. In a realized niche, the organism tends to occupy and play an ecological role where it is mostly highly adapted.

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Community

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All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction.

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Symbiotic relationships

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A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does notnecessarily, benefit each member.

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Commensalisms

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[L. com, together + mensa, table]

A symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont benefits but the host is neither helped nor harmed.

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Ammensalism

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the ecological interaction in which an individual species harms another without obtaining benefit.

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Parasitism

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A symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont (parasite) benefits at the expense of the host by living either within the host (endoparasite) or outside the host (ectoparasite)

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Mutualism

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Mutualism is a type of symbiosis where both species benefit from the interaction. An example of mutualism is the relationship between bullhorn acacia trees and certain species of ants. The acacia provides food and shelter for the ants and the ants protect the tree.

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Predator

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[L. praedari, to prey upon;

from prehendere, to grasp, seize]

An organism that eats other living organisms.

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Prey

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[L. prehendere, to grasp, seize]

An organism eaten by another organism.

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Host

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An organism on or in which a parasite lives.

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Parasite

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[Gk. para, beside, akin to + sitos, food]

An organism that absorbs nutrients from the body fluids of living hosts

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Consumer

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A heterotroph that derives its energy from living or freshly killed organisms or parts thereof. Primary consumers are herbivores; higher-level consumers are carnivores.

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Producer

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An autotrophic organism, usually a photosynthesizer, that contributes to the net primary productivity of a community.

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Scavenger

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Scavenging is both a carnivorous and a herbivorous feeding behavior in which the scavenger feeds on dead animal and plant material present in its habitat. The eating of carrion from the same species is referred to as cannibalism.

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Decomposer

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Saprotrophic fungi and bacteria that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms, and convert them into inorganic forms.

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detritivore

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an organism (as an earthworm or a fungus) that feeds on dead and decomposing organic matter

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Ecosystem

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[Gk. oikos, home + systema, that which is put together]

A level of ecological study that includes all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; a community and its physical environment

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Trophic level

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[Gk. trophos, feeder]The division of species in an ecosystem on the basis of their main nutritional source. The trophic level that ultimately supports all others consists of autotrophs, or primary producers.