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Terms
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- secondary ecological succession
- a type of succession that occues where an exisiting community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil intact
- mimicry
- a defense where one species is selected to look like another species which has an effective defense
- primary production
- the amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic compounds) by autotrophs in an ecosystem during a given time period
- symbiotic relationships
- an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct contact
- ecological succession
- transition in the species composition of a biological community, often following ecological distrubance of the community; the establishment of a biological community in an area virtually barren of life
- corridors
- narrow strips of intermediate habitat that while not optimum for residence, allow members of a species to disperse from one patch othe another more easily
- trophic structure
- the different feeding relationships in an ecosystem, which determine the route of energy flow and the pattern of chemical cycling
- declining population approach
- a proactive approach to species conservation that focuses on detecting, diagnosing and preventing population declines in order to keep the population above a minimum viable size.
- endangered
- species in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range
- hydrology
- the movement distribution and quality of water throughout the earth
- endemic
- speices that are confined to a specific relatively small geographic area
- evenness
- a mathematical measure of how the total number of individuals in an area are divided among the number of species in an area. in even communities, most species have about the same number of individuals present, where in an uneven community almost all the individuals present belong to one species
- augmentation
- a research method that helps set the stage for recolonization by native species which can then overgorw the exotic plant
- niche
- the job a species plays in a community. e.g. small seed consumer, top predator
- predation
- the interaction between species in which one species, the predator, eats the other, the prey
- coevolution
- the mutual influence on the evolution of two different species interacting with each other and reciprocally influencing each others adaptation
- ecotourism
- a form of tourism involving travel to destinations where the flora fauna and cultural heritage are the primary attractions
- energy flow
- the passage of energy through the components of an ecosystem
- disturbance
- a force that changes a biological community and usually removes organisms from it. disturbances. such as fire an storms play pivotal roles in structuring many biological communities.
- detritivores
- a heterotroph that derives its energy from nonliving organic material
- invasive species
- a subset of introduces species or non idigenous species that are rapidly expanding outsie of their native range. they can alter ecological realtionships among native species and can affect ecosystem function and human health
- primary ecological succession
- a type of ecological succession that occurs in a virtually lifeless ares, where there were originally no organisms and where soil has not yet formed
- landscape ecology
- the application of ecological principles to the study of land-use patterns; the scientific study of the biodiversity of interacting ecosystems
- richness
- the simple count of number of species in an area
- resource partitioning
- the division of environmental resources by coexsisting species such that the niche of each species differs by one or more signifigant factors from the niches of all coexsisting species.
- communities
- all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of diffferent speicies living in close enough for potential interaction
- habitat edges
- the portion of a habitiat that immediately borders another, so that its phyusical characteristics do not completely match the interior of its own patch
- biodiversity hotspots
- a realtively small area with an exceptional concetration of endemic species
- habitat complexity
- a rough measure of the number of unique habitats in an enviornment, and the range of physical structure among them
- gap analysis
- research method used to study the distribution of organisms relative to landscape features and habitat types
- chemical cycling
- the use and reuse of chemical elements such as carbon within an ecosystem
- commensalism
- symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont benefits but the host is neither helped nor harmed
- keystone species
- species that are not usually abundant in a community yet exert strong control on community structure by the nature of their ecological roles or niches
- ecosystems
- all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact , a community and its physical environment
- food webs
- the eloborate interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem
- biological magnification
- a trophic process in which retained substances become more concentrated with each link in the food chain
- parasitism
- a symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont ( the parasite) benefits at the expense of the host by living either withing the host ( endoparasite) or outside the host ( as an ectoparasite)
- ozone layer
- the layer of O3 in the upper atmosphere that protects life on Earth from the harmful ultraviolet rays in the sunlight
- herbivory
- consumption of plants
- bioremediation
- use of living organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems
- small popualtion approach
- an approach to species conservation concerned with the facotrs that drive a small popualation to extinction, such as genetic drift, inbreeding .etc.
- sustainable development
- the long term prosperity of human societies and the ecosystem tha support them
- food chain
- the pathway along which food is transfered from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with the producers
- chemical prospecting
- the search for new pharmaceuticals, insecticides, or other useful chemical based on the natural chemicals used by organisms in their enviornment to deter predators, pathogens, etc,
- pathogens
- a disease causing organism
- competitive eclusion
- the concept that when populations of two similar species compete for the same limited resources, one population will use the resources more efficiently and have a reproductive advantage that will eventually lead to the elimination of the other population.
- eutrophication
- excessive plant growth and decay in aquatic or marine ecosystems favoring weedy species and then decomposers that can choke out the natural biological community of an area. Eutrophication is typically cause by increased flow of nutrients, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, above normal levels.
- zoned reserves
- an extensive region of land that includes one or more areas undisturbed by humans surrounded by lands that have been changed by human activity and are used for economic gain
- producers
- organisms that make organic food molecules from CO2 and H2O and other inorganic raw materials; a plant, alga, or autotrophic bacterium
- mutualism
- a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit
- consumers
- organisms in a food chain that are heterotrophic, but feed excessivelt on other living organisms. i.e. they are predators or herbavores
- threatened species
- likely to become endangered in the forseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range
- fragmentation
- the emergence of discontinuities in an organisms prefered environment, including reduction in the total habitat area, increased edge habitat, isolation of habitat patches, and reduction of the average size of patches.
- biodiversity
- all of the variety of life; usually refers to the variety of species that make up a community' concerns both species richness( the total number of different species) and the relative abundance of the different species