BIO AP: Chapter 13: Animal Behavior and Ecology
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pendragon4526 on May 6, 2011
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Princeton Review, 2011
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50 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 behavior | how organisms cope with their environment |
| ecology | the study of the interactions between living things and their environments |
| instinct | an inborn, unlearned behavior; the inherited "circuitry" that directs and guides behavior |
| fixed action pattern | innate movements independent of the environment which are not simple reflexes nor are they conscious decisions |
| learning | a change in a behavior brought about by an experience |
| imprinting | a form of learning that occurs during a brief amount of time, usually early in an organisms' life |
| critical period | a window of time when the animal is sensitive to certain aspects of the environment |
| classical conditioning | learning through repeated instances of an event |
| associative learning | learning by means of association |
| operant conditioning | trial-and-error learning; an animal learns to perform an act in order to receive a reward |
| habituation | when the animal learns not to respond to a stimulus that has no consequences on it |
| insight | the ability to figure out a behavior that generates a desired outcome |
| reasoning | using insight to solve problems |
| circadian rhythms | internal clocks; daily ONLY |
| pheromones | chemical signals between members of the same species that stimulate olfactory receptors and ultimately affect behavior |
| agnostic behavior | aggressive behavior that occurs as a result of competition for food or other resources |
| dominance hierarchy | occurs when members in a group have established which members are the most dominant in a group |
| territoriality | where the male of a species establishes and defends his territory within a group in order to protect important resources |
| altruistic behavior | unselfish behavior that benefits another organism |
| biosphere | the entire part of the earth where living things exist; incluedes soil, water, light, and air |
| ecosystem | the interaction of living and non-living things |
| community | a group of populations interacting in the same area |
| population | a group of individuals that belong to the same species and are interbreeding (thus they must be in the same location and same time-period) |
| biomes | massive areas that are classified mostly on the basis of their climates and plant life |
| carbon cycle | the process by which carbon is recycled throughout the ecosystem |
| niche | an organisms' position or function in a community |
| food chain | a chain which describes the way different organisms depend on one another for food |
| primary consumers | organisms that directly feed on producers |
| herbivores | another name for primary consumers |
| secondary consumers | organisms that feed on primary consumers |
| tertiary consumers | eat secondary consumers and producers |
| 10% rule | in a food chain, only about 10% of the energy is transferred from one level to the next |
| ecological pyramid | a representation on a chart of the energy flow, biomass, and number of members within an ecosystem |
| mutualism | a symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit |
| commensalism | a symbiotic relationship where one organism lives off another with no harm to the "host" organism |
| parasitism | a symbiotic relationship where the organism actually harms its host |
| carrying capacity | the maximum number of individuals of a species that a habitat can support |
| density-independent factors | factors that affect the population regardless of the density of the population |
| density-dependent factors | factors that are dependent on population density |
| exponential growth | growth that occurs when a population is in an ideal environment |
| logistic growth | growth that occurs and plateaus after a period of exponential growth because of lack of resources |
| r-strategists | organisms who grow exponentially and colonize when they reach an area that is barren in order to "beat out" the competition |
| k-strategists | organisms who are best suited for survival in stable environments; larger animals are usually these; they produce a small number of offspring and have a long lifespan |
| ecological succession | the predictable procession of plant communities over a relatively short period of time |
| primary succession | the process of ecological succession where no previous organisms have existed |
| pioneer organisms | organisms which "set the stage" for other organisms to settle into (lichens eroding rock into soil, etc.) |
| sere | the entire sequence of pioneer organisms making an area habitable, and then being replaced by more complex organisms which they cannot compete with for resources, etc. |
| climax community | the final community formed through "sere" |
| secondary succession | a community which has developed where another community has been destroyed or destructed |
| biomagnification | the process by which toxins become more concentrated as it moves through each trophic level |
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