| A | B |
|---|
| abiotic | pertaining to non-living factors |
| arithmetic growth | pattern of growth that increases at a constant amount per unit time |
| biotic | pertaining to life |
| biotic potential | maxiumum reproductive rate of an organism, given unlimited resources and ideal environmental conditions |
| carrying capacity | maximum number of individuals of any species that can be supported by a particular ecosystem on a long term basis |
| chaotic systems | systems that exhibit variability whose complex patterns are not discernible over human time scale |
| dieback | sudden poulation decline or population crash |
| emigration | movement of members from a population |
| environmental resistance | all limiting factors that tend to reduce population growth rates and sets the carrying capacity of an ecosystem |
| exponential growth | growth at a constant rate of increase per unit of time; expressed as a constant fraction |
| fecundity | physical ability to reproduce |
| fertility | measurement of actual number of offspring produced through sexual reproduction; described in terms of # of females |
| geometric growth | growth that follows a geometric patterns of increase; 2, 4, 8, 26... |
| Malthusian growth | Population explosion followed by a population crash; irruptive growth |
| J curve | growth curve that depicts exponential growth |
| life span | Longest period of life reached by a type of organism |
| logistic growth | growth rates regulated by internal and external factors that establish and equilibrium with environmental resources |
| mortality | death rate in a population |
| natality | production of new individuals by birth, hatching, germination, or cloning |
| population crash | sudden population decline caused by predation, waste, accumulation, or resource depletion called dieback |
| population explosion | growth of a population at exponential rates to a size that exceeds environmental carrying capacity |
| population momentum | a potential for increased population growth as young members reach reproductive age |
| S curve | a curve that depicts logistic growth |
| stress related disease | symptoms relating from stress: reduced fertility, low resistance to infections diseases, and pathological behavior |
| survivorship | percentage of a population reaching a given age or proportion of the maximum life span of the species reached by any individual |
