| A | B |
|---|
| Population size | Number of organism belinging to apopulation group |
| Population growth | Increas in population size over time |
| Biotic potential | Highest reproductive capacity of a population to increase indefinitely under ideal conditions. |
| Limiting factors | Unfavorable factor such as temperature, disease, predation. |
| Population growth curve | Used to graph changes in the size of a population |
| Carrying capacity | Great number of indivduals in a specific population that a specific environment is capable of supoorting. |
| Birthrate | Number of of organisms born or produced in a given time span. |
| Death rate | Number of organisms that die during a given time span. |
| Population density | Number of one kind of organmish in a given area. |
| Predation | Feeding of one organism on another |
| Interspecific competition | Interaction that takes place between different species where they compete for the same recources. |
| Intraspecific competition | Competiton between members of the same species for the same resources.A |
| Social hierdarchy | System of authority relationships that is based on dominance and spread throughout a society. |
| Territoriality | Possession and defense of specific territories: reduces conflict within a species. |
| Zero population growth | Conditions where the birthrate equals the death rate and the population growth rate equals zero. |
| Biotic factor | Interspecies and intraspecies relationships of organisms living within a community |
| Ecosystem | Relationship of a community of organisms interacting with its enviroment |
| Trohpic level | An organisms position in the food chain. |
| First order consumer | A consumer that feeds directly on a producer |
| Herbivores | Plant-eating animal, such as a cow, thats occupies the second trophic level in an ecosystem. |
| Second order consumer | Carnivorous consumer such as a snake that feeds directly on the first order consumer. |
| Carnivores | Meat eater: consumer, such as a snake or owl, that feeds on another consumer. |
| Third order consumer | Carnivorous consumer such as an owl that feeds on the secondary order consumer. |
| Pyramid of energy | Diagram of the transfer of energy in a food chain that shows the energy levels within an ecosystem. |
| Pyramid of number | Diagrams of energy loss in a food chain that shows how many individual organisms an ecosystem can support. |
| Biomass | Total dried weight of all organic matter at different trophic levels. |
| Pyramid of biomass | Diagram that shows how many living matter can be supported by an ecosystem. |
| commensalism | Relationship in which only one organism benefits and the other organism is unaffected. |
| Paratism | Density-dependent factor for population size in which harmful organisms live on ot in a host organism, from which they draw norishment. |
| abiotic factor | Physical environmental factor, such as water, temperature, siol and light. That influences the composition and growth of an ecosystem |
| Estivation | Period of summer dormancy that allows organisms to survive heat or drought |
| Algal bloom | Explosive population increase in Algae that occurs when large amounts of phosphate and/or nitrates enter a body of water in the presence of warm temperatures;can cause stagnation. |
| Ecological succession | Gradual process by which communities change over time. |
| Primary succession | Succession that begins in areas in which there is no life, such as barren rock. |
| pioneer stage | First stage of primary succession that begins with hardy organisms that can grown and reproduce under adverse conditions. |
| Climax community | In ecological succession, the final community, which is complex, stable, and tends to remain basically the same unless disturbed by nature or humans |
| secondary succession | New successsion beginning when the dominant plants of a plant community are removes and the enviroment is left untended. |
| Biome | One of the distinctive geographic regions of the world. |
| Tundra | Biome characterized by harsh winters, permafrost, short summers, little precipitation, etc. |
| Permafrost | Permentaly frozen soil layer of the tundra |
| Taiga | Biome south of the tundra characterized by the coniferous forests, and frequent fog, and acidic soil. |
| Temperate forest | Biome south of the taiga characterized by definite seasons, vegetation, etc. |
| Tropical rain forest | Biome characterized with heavy rain, and constantly warm temperatures. |
| Grasslands | Biome in which grasses are the major species. |
| Deserts | Biome characterized by less than 25 cm of rainfall yearly, rapid evaporation, poor soil, and little plant or animal life. |
| Plankton | Aquatic organism, such as copepods and jelly-fish, that are carried by oceans currents |
| Nekton | Aquatic organisms that swim freely throught the ocean. |
| Benthos | Aquatic organisms that live attached to the ocean floors or crawl over it. |
