AP Biology Ecology Cards
Terms
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- ecology
- the study of the interactions of organisms with their environments
- organism level
- how one organism meet the challenges of its environment
- population
- an interacting group of individuals
- community level
- consists of all the organisms; all the populations of different species that inhabit a particular area
- ecosystem level
- includes all the life forms existing in a certain areas AND all NONLIVING factors as well
- abiotic
- nonliving factors (temperature, energy, gases, water)
- biotic
- organisms
- biosphere
- the global ecosystem, the portion of the Earth that is alive
- habitats
- environmental situations in which organisms live
- 4 most important abiotic factors are...?
- Solar energy, water, temperature, and wind
- doldrums
- air at the equator rises and creates an area of calm of very light rises
- trade winds
-
dry air descends, and some of it spreads back toward the equator
dominates the tropics - tropics
- latitudes between 23.5 degrees north and south
- temperate zones
- regions that have milder climates than the tropics or the polar regions
- Prevailing winds
- major global air movements; caused by the combined effects of the rising and falling of air masses and Earth's rotation
- westerlies
- winds that blow from west to east
- ocean currents
- riverlike flow patterns in the oceans
- esutuary
- an area where fresh water merges with seawater
- intertidal zone
- where estuarine water (sea water) meets land
- wetland
- an ecosystem that is intermediate between an aquatic ecosystem and a terrestrial one
- pelagic zone
- the ocean water itself
- phytoplankton
- algae and cyanobacteria
- zooplankton
- animals that drift in the pelagic zone - eat phytoplankton
- benthic zone
- seafloor
- photic zone
- a small portion of ocean water which light penetrates and in which photosynthesis occurs
- aphotic zone
- the vase dark region that is most of the oceans
- biomes
- terrestrial ecosystems
- tropical thorn forests
- equatorial lowlands, rainfall is scarce, prolonged dry seasons, thorny shrubs and trees
- tropical deciduous forests
- India, Southeast Asia, Tropical deciduous trees and shrubs, releaf after heavy rains
- tropical rain forests
- very humid equatorial areas, rainfall is abundant (>250 cm/year) + season of reduced rainfall for a few months
- savanna
- dominated by grasses and scattered trees, South America, South Africa, Australia, temperate forests
- deserts
- sparse rainfall, rapid evaporation, Austrailia, central Sahara
- desertification
- conversion of other biomes (especially savannas) to deserts
- Chaparral
- dense, spiny shrubs, evergreen leaves, cool ocean currents mild, rainy winters, and long, hot, dry summers
- temperate grasslands
- treeless, cold winter temperatures
- temperate deciduous forests
- sufficient moisture to support the growth of large trees (oak, beech, hickory)
- coniferous forests
- bioms in which the principal trees are cone bearers
- taiga
- extensive coniferous forest across northern coniferous forest, harsh winters, short summers
- tundra
- permanently covered with ice and snow; dwarf woody shurbs, grasses, mosses, and lichens
- permafrost
- continuously frozen ground
- Population dynamics
- the changes in population size and the factors that regulate populations over time
- population density
- the number of individuals of a species per unit are or volume
- mark-recapture method
- a method used to trap animals and tag them, and then are released. The proportion of marked to unmarked individuals gives an estimate of the size of the entire population
- dispersion pattern
- the way individuals are spaced within their area
- clumped
- individuals are separated in patches
- uniform
- an even pattern of dispersion often results from interactions among individuals of a population
- random
- individuals in a population are spaced in a patternless, unpredictable way
- intrinsic rate of increase
- an organism's inherent capacity to reproduce
- exponential growth model
- unregulated growth of a population
- population limiting factors
- environmental factors that restrict population growth
- logistic growth model
- idealized population growth that is lowed by limiting factors
- carrying capacity
- the number of individuals in a population the environment can maintain.
- density dependent factors
- factors whose effects depend on the opulation size (limited food supply and the buildup of poisonous wastes)
- density independent factors
- limiting factors whose occurrence is not affected by population size (climate, weather)
- life history
- the series of events from birth through reproduction to death
- opportunistic life history
- population tends to grow exponentially when conditions are favorable
- equilibrial life history
- population is stable, held by density dependent factors
- age structure
- the proportion of individuals in different age groups
- community
- all the populations of organisms living together and potentially interacting in a particular area
- trophic structure
- the feeding relationships among the various species making up the community
- interspecific competition
- two populations both require a limited resource, and individuals of the two species compete for the resource
- competitive exclusion principle
- A slight reproductive advantage will eventually lead to local elimination of the inferior competitor (G.F. Gause)
- niche
- a population's role in its community
- predation
- interaction where one species eats another
- predator
- consumer in predation
- prey
- the food species
- coevolution
-
a series of reciprocal adaptations in two species
Heliconius :: Passiflora - Batesian mimicry
- a paltable species mimics an unpalatable one (one harmless other harmful)
- Mullerian mimicry
- two unpalatable species that inhabit the same community mimic each otehr. (both harmful and mutually benefit)
- keystone predator
- a species that reduces the density of the strongest competitors in a community
- symbiotic relationship
- an interaction between two or more species in which one species lives in or on another species (parasitism, commensalism, nd mutualism)
- parasitism
- predator-prey relationship in which one organism, the parasite, derives its food at the expense of its symbiotic sociate, the host
- commensalism
- one partner benefits without significantly affecting the other
- mutualism
- benefits both partners in the relationship
- stability
- the tendency to remain in a more or less constant balance due largely to interactions among organisms
- disturbance
- a force that alters a biological community and usually removes organisms from it
- ecological succession
- the process of community change resulting from disturbance
- primary succession
- community arises in a virtually lifeless area with no soil
- secondary succession
- occurs where a disturbance has destroyed an existing community but left the soil intact
- energy flow
- the passage of energy through the components of the ecosystem
- chemical cycling
- involves the circular movement of materials WITHIN the ecosystem
- food chain
- sequence of food transfer from trophic level to trophic level
- producers
- the trophic level that supports all others consists of autotrophs
- primary consumers
- herbivors and eat auto trophs and their products
- secondary consumers
- small mammals eating insects and bugs
- tertiary consumers
- snakes that eat mice is an example
- quaternary consumers
- hawks and killer whales is an example
- detritivores
- derive their energy from detritus - dead material
- decomposition
- the breakdown of organic materials into inorganic ones
- food web
- network of interconnecting food chains
- biomass
- the amount of living organic material in an ecosystem
- primary productivity
- the rate at which producers convert solar energy to chemical energy
- eutrophication
- increasingly productive lakes that will cause massive amounts of algae, then aerobic bacteria, then a dead zone
- zoned reserve
- an extensive region of land that includes one or more areas undisturbed by humans
- animal behavior
- externally observable muscular activity triggered by some stimulus
- behavioral biology
- science of behavior
- proximate cause
- explains behavior in terms of immediate interactions with the environment
- ultimate causes
- evolutionary causes of behavior
- behavioral ecology
- the search for ultimate causes
- innate behavior
- behavior that appears to be performed in virtually the same way by all individuals of a species
- fixed action patterns (FAPs)
- unchangeable behavioral sequences
- sign stimulus
- a stimulus that triggers a FAP
- Learning
- a change in behavior resulting from experience
- habituation
- an animal learns not to respond to a repeated stimulus that conveys little or no information
- imprinting
- learning that is limited to a specific time period in an animal's life that is irreversible
- critical period
- the specific time during which imprinting occurs
- Associative learning
- learning that a particular stimulus or particular response is linked to a reward or punishment
- classical conditioning
- an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment
- trial and error learning
- an animal learns to associate one of its own behavioral acts with a positive or negative effect
- imitation
- learning by observing and mimicking the behavior of others
- innovation
- is the ability to respond appropriately to a new situation without prior experience
- anthropomorphism
- assuming that animals experience feelings such as pain or pleasure in the same ways humans do
- consciousness
- conscious thinking and self awareness
- circadian rhythms
- patterns that are repeated daily
- kinesis
- a random movement in response to a stimulus
- orientation behavior
- directed movements
- taxis
- automatic movement directed toward or away from a stimulus
- cognition
- the ability of an animal's nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by its sensory receptors.
- cognitive ethology
- study of animal cognition
- cognitive maps
- internal representations, or codes, of the spatial relationships among objects in their surroundings
- seasonal migration
- the regular back and forth movement of animlas between two geographic areas at particular times of the eyar
- search image
- the mechanism that enables an animal to find particular foods efficiently
- optimal foraging
- feeding behavior that yilds the lowest cost/benefit ratio
- social behavior
- any kind of interaction between two or more animals
- agonistic behavior
- threats or actual combat that settles disputes between individuals in a population
- dominance hierarchy
- ranking of individuals based on social interactions
- territory
- an area that individuals defend and from which other members of the same species are usually excluded
- altruism
- behavior which reduces an individual's fitness while increasing the fitness of a recipient
- kin selection
- altruistic behavior evolves because it increases the number of copies of a gene common to a group
- recipricol altruism
- an altruistic act repaid at a later time by the beneficiary
- sociobiology
- the study of evolutionary basis of social behavior