Ecology Quiz
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44 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| ecosystems | a specific biological community and its physical environment interacting in an exchange of matter and energy. |
| habitat | the type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs.place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism |
| Niche | the status of an organism within its environment and community (affecting its survival as a species.) Often includes the food an organism eats, and other aspects. |
| Competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources. the struggle between individuals of the same or different species for food, space, light, etc, when these are inadequate to supply the needs of all organisms. |
| Community | a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other |
| population | a group of individuals of the same species inhabiting a given area |
| predator/prey | A relationship in which one organism captures and eats another for food. Often times the predator is a carnivore, and the prey is a herbivore. |
| The miracle fish | The Nile Perch that has been introduced to Lake Victoria in the 1950's (1954). Some may call the Nile Perch a miracle fish, while others call it a sick giant. The population of Nile Perch boomed in the 1980's. In this lab, we discovered the pros and cons to introducing Nile Perch to Lake Victoria. |
| The pros to Nile Perch | Nile Perch have made Lake Victoria's economy boom. It has supplied many jobs to the poor, and have given the people there more to eat than ever before. |
| The cons to Nile Perch | Nile Perch are carnivores and eat the many original species of Cichlids living in the lake. Over 200 species have gone extinct and many have diminished. Huge growths of algae have also made dead zones, and Nile Perch are too large to be caught by a regular boat and net. |
| Cichlids | any of the spiny-rayed, freshwater fishes constituting the family Cichlidae, of South America, Africa, and southern Asia |
| Ecologists | Are biological scientists studying relationships between living organisms and their environment |
| Evidence | that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof, collected body of data from observations and experiments, materials presented to prove or disprove alleged facts |
| Trade offs | all the alternatives that we give up whenever we choose one course of action over another. Is a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return for gaining another quality or aspect. It implies a decision to be made with full comprehension of both the upside and downside of a particular choice. |
| fluctuation | Frequent irregular change back and forth from one state or degree to another.the quality of being unsteady and subject to changes. |
| introduced species | species moved by humans to new geographic areas, either intentionally or accidentally. Sometimes called exotic species, or can also become invasive species. |
| Energy Flow | The passage of energy through the components of an ecosystem, The flow of energy from an ecosystem to an organism and from one organism to another. |
| Inference | the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation, logical interpretation based on prior knowledge and experience |
| Observation | use of one or more of the senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, and sometimes taste—to gather information, the process of gathering information about events or processes in a careful, orderly way. An activity of a living being (such as a human), consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. |
| consumer | organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food supply; also called a heterotroph, organism that obtains food by eating producers (autotrophs) or other consumers |
| food web | network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem. A diagram showing the connections among everything that organisms in a location eat and are eaten by. A food web is more complex than a food chain, by showing more connections. |
| Photosynthesis | The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct |
| plankton | the aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water, tiny, free-floating organisms that occur in aquatic environments |
| producer | an organism that makes its own food, organism that makes its own food (autotroph) and produces organic molecules that serve as food for other organisms in its ecosystem |
| decomposer | organism that breaks down and obtains energy from dead organic matter, an organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients |
| microbe | microscopic life-form; microorganism; germ. microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, microscopic algae, protozoa, and viruses. |
| Zebra Mussels | Native to the lakes of Russia. Detected in the Great Lakes in 1988. Invasive in that they multiply rapidly and can filter large amounts of zoo plankton, robbing native young fish of food. Learning about Zebra Mussels is in the lab "Ups and Downs." |
| The pros to zebra mussels | Zebra mussels have cleaned up the great lakes increasingly. |
| The cons to zebra mussels | Zebra mussels have filtered out too mush phytoplankton, which have caused other species of fish to die off. The sharp edges of Zebra mussels also cut flesh. Zebra mussels can attach to almost any surface, which has caused many problems in blocking up pipes. |
| Lake Victoria | the largest lake in Africa and the 2nd largest fresh water lake in the world. It is bordered by Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. It is located on the western part of Africa's rift valley. |
| Never Cry Wolf | This film dramatizes the true story of Farley Mowat (in this case named Tyler), when he was sent to the Canadian tundra area to collect evidence of the grievous harm the wolf population was allegedly doing to the caribou herds. In his struggle to survive in that difficult environment he studies the wolves, and realizes that the old beliefs about wolves and their supposed threat are almost totally false. Furthermore, he learns that humans represent a far greater threat to the land, and also to the wolves, a species which plays an important role in the ecosystem of the north. |
| commensalism | the relation between two different kinds of organisms when one receives benefits from the other without damaging it, symbiotic relationship in which one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed |
| Mutualism | the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent, symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship |
| Parasites | a plant or animal that gets food or protection from another living being without benefiting from it, an organism that lives in or on another organism, deriving nourishment at the expense of its host, usually without killing it. An example is an flea or leech. |
| Host | an animal or plant that nourishes and supports a parasite, an organism that provides a source of energy for a virus or another organism |
| Owl Pellets | Regurgitated, undigested bones, fur, feathers compacted into a pellet. Owl pellets will most often be brown or gray. Pellets will usually measure 1.5 to 3.5 inches long, depending on the size of the owl, and are usually coated in the fur of digestible animals. When a pellet is regurgitated, it is roughly the same shape as a particular owl's gizzard and can be spherical, oblong or plug-shaped. |
| Coughing up Clues | The lab in which we dissected an owl pellet. |
| Carrying Capacity | largest number of individuals of a population that a given environment can support. Often depends on the food available in an area and other aspects. |
| Can We Fit One More? | The lab that we learned about carrying capacity. |
| Classification | The arrangement of animals and plants in taxonomic groups according to their observed similarities (including at least kingdom and phylum in animals, division in plants, and class, order, family, genus, and species) |
| Species | A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding |
| Exotic Species | species that are carried to a new location by people |
| invasive species | plants and animals that have migrated to areas where they did not originate; often displace native species by outcompeting them for resources |
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