| A | B |
|---|
| Food web | a diagram that shows the feeding pattern for various animal. |
| Evaporation | the process of converting water into |
| Precipitation | the amount of rainfall a certain are receives. |
| Transpiration | the releasing of water/vapor by an organism to remain cool. |
| Prairie | an environment similar to a grass field. Most of landscape is grass. |
| Phytoplankton | a type of plant plankton, such as algae, that is the basic food source in many aquatic and marine ecosystems. PRIMARY PRODUCERS |
| Zooplankton | plankton composed of animals, include planktonic protists and animals, including the larval stages of many organisms that are as large as adults. |
| Ecology | the study of living things and their reaction to their environment. |
| Abiotic | the chemical and physical aspects of an ecosystem. NOT LIVING |
| Biotic | the living things in an ecosystem. |
| Habitat | The environment where an organism lives. |
| Biome | a large, easily differentiated community unit arising a result of complex interactions of climate, other physical interaction, and biotic factors. |
| Community | An assemblage of populations. |
| Producer | rganisms, such as plants, that produce from simple inorganic substances. |
| Herbivore | organism that consumes plants |
| Carnivore | organism that consumes meat |
| Parasite | An organism that depends on others to live. The parasite can either be harmful, neutral, or helpful. |
| Decomposer | Microorganisms of decay. |
| Photosynthetic | An organism that is able to receive food by taking in carbon dioxide and water by sunshine. |
| Omnivore | can eat plants and meat |
| Succession | the universal process of directional change in vegetation during ecological time. |
| Diversity | Variety and difference in population. |
| Fundamental niche | Niche that might prevail in the absence of competition and other factors. |
| Realized niche | one that changes so it can adapt into its habitat. |
| Commensalism | directly helps one specie but does not affect the other much. |
| Mutualism | benefits flow both ways |
| Interspecific competition | disadvantages flow both ways, 2 different species |
| 3 types of Symbiosis | Commensalism, Parasitism, and Mutualism |
| Intraspecific competition | disadvantages flow both ways. 2 same species |
| Competitive Exclusion | any 2 species that utilize identical resources that cannot co-exist indefinitely. |
| Resource partitioning | the sub dividing of some category of similar resources that lets competing species co exist. |
| Parasitism | Only one-organism benefits and the other gets harmed. |
| Population | a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area. |
| Population Growth | An increase in a population. |
| Population growth rate | the change in the number of individuals in a population OVER TIME. |
| Biotic Potential | the rate at which a population will grow if all individual survive and reproduce at maximum capacity. |
| Growth Curves (GRAPH) | a graph showing the number of individuals in a population over time. |
| J-Shaped curve | a growth curve that tracks two phases of population growth - the lay phase and the exponential phase. |
| Lag phase | little or no increase in a population |
| Exponential phase | a population increases so rapidly that the number of individuals doubles in specific time interval and keeps doubling an increasingly shorter periods of time. |
| S-Shaped Curve | a growth curve that depicts the period of relative stability in a population that occurs after its lag and exponential. |
| Population density | the number of individuals in a population in a given area at a given time. |
| Density-dependant factors | factors that affect populations in different ways depending on population density. |
| Density-independent factors | factors that affect populations regardless of population density. |
| pioneer species | the first species to colonize a new habitat |
| seral | intermediate communities |
| climax | a community that will remain stable as long as the area is undistrurbed |
| secondary succession | succession in disrupted habitatsthat have not been totally stripped of soil and vegetation |
| eutrophication | the increase in nutrients in an environment |
| oligotrophic | deficient in nutrients |
| digotrophic | a lake low in nutrients so relatively few organisms can survive |
| oak, maple | the pioneer tree species on presque isle |
| threatened | likely to become endangered in the near future |
| endangered | at risk of extinction in their native habitats |
| extinction | disappear from all or part of the species geographical range |
| alien | species which are not endemic to an area |
| the area of biology concerned with maintaining healthy populations of all species of wildlife | wildlife managment |
| E.P.A | federal agency which protects human health and safeguards the natural environment |
| 1970, !!! | the year E.P.A was made? |
| U.S fish and wildlife | federal agency responsible for carrying out the Endangered Species Act |
| DEP, DCNR, PGC | list 3 state agencies associated with the environment |
| Ecology | the study of the interactions of organisms with one another and with the physical and chemical environment |
| population (repeat) | (repeat) a group of individuals of the species occupying a given area. |
| autotophs -producers | "self-feeding" organisms |
| community | the populations of all species that occupy a habitat |
| photosynthetic | organisms which get their energy from the sun |
| chemosynthetic | organisms which get their energy from chemical procces |
| deciduous | trees that lose their leaves in the fall, broad-leaved |
| coniferous | pine cones, survive through winter harshness, Evergreen tree-{"christmas tree"} |
| biome | a region characterized by its climate, plants, and animals |
| biodiversity | the measure of the different kinds of organisms in an ecosystem |
| biosphere | the narrow zone of water, the lower reigon of the atmosphere, and the fraction of the earth's crust in which organisms live |
