Coombs - APES Chapter 3
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coombsbiology Plus on September 18, 2011
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APES, APES ap environmental science Chapter vocal reviews tiff
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60 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| Organism | any living thing |
| Species | group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| Population | a group of organisms of the same species found in a given area |
| Genetic Diversity | the amount of variation in the genetic material within all members of a popualtion |
| Habitat | place where an Organism lives |
| Distribution / Range | area over which we can find a species |
| Community / Biological Community | population of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time; ex: all the plants, ducks, turtles, animals, etc. in the pond |
| Ecosystem | collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment |
| Biosphere | part of Earth in which life exists including land (lithosphere), water (hydrosphere), and air (atmosphere) |
| Atmosphere | part of biosphere; consists of all air and gases; composed of troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere |
| Troposphere | part of atmosphere closest to surface of earth; contains most of the gases and the weather |
| Stratosphere | part of atmosphere 2nd closest to surface (just above troposphere); contains ozone layer to absorb harmful UV radiation from sun |
| Hydrosphere | part of biosphere containing water, ice, and water vapor |
| Lithosphere | part of biosphere containing crust of earth and soil |
| Natural greenhouse effect | absorption of thermal energy by the atmosphere. It keeps the earth's temperature within a certain range |
| Biomes | large geographic areas with similar climates and ecosystems characterized by dominant vegetation type; ex: tropical rainforest, temperate deciduous forest, etc. |
| Abiotic | nonliving, physical features of the environment, including air, water, sunlight, soil, temperature, and climate |
| Biotic | environmental factors created by living organisms; ex: predators, food, disease |
| Range of tolerance | the range of conditions within which an organism can survive |
| Limiting factor | any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms. |
| Limiting factor principle / Liebig's law of the minimum | too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent growth of a population, even if all other factors are at or near the optimum range |
| Producer / autotroph | organisms that are "self nourished" or "self feeding"; use photosynthesis to get their energy; ex: plants, algae, phytoplankton |
| Photosynthesis | process used by producers/autotrophs to gain energy |
| Chemosynthesis | process by which some bacteria use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates in absence of sunlight; takes place at hydrothermal vents |
| Consumer / heterotroph | organisms that are "other nourished" or "other feeding"; get energy by eating or breaking down other organsisms; ex: herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, decomposers, detritivores |
| Primary consumer / herbivore | consumer that feeds on producers; ex: giraffe, gazelle, caterpillar |
| Secondary consumer / carnivore | consumer that feeds on primary consumers; ex: lion |
| Tertiary consumer | consumer that eats secondary consumers; ex: predatory birds, bald eagle, owls, sharks |
| Decomposer | organism that breaks down and obtains energy from dead organic matter; ex: bacteria, fungi |
| Detritivore | organism that feeds on animal and plant remains that it did not capture; ex: earth worm, maggots, scavengers |
| Detritus | dead organic matter |
| Scavenger | any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter; vulture, opossum, raccoon |
| Aerobic respiration | process used by consumers to break down carbohydrates and gain energy when oxygen is available |
| Anaerobic respiration / fermentation | process used by consumers to break down carbohydrates and gain energy when oxygen is NOT available |
| Biological diversity / biodiversity | the variety of the earth's species, the genes they contain, the ecosystems in which they live, and the ecosystem processes such as energy flow and nutrient cycling that sustain all life |
| HIPPO | habitat destruction invasive species pollution population growth (human) overuse / over exploitation |
| Food chain | series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten |
| Trophic level | each step in a food chain or food web |
| Food web | a diagram that shows ALL feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
| Biomass | total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level |
| Ecological efficiency | percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to another in a food chain or web |
| Gross primary productivity (GPP) | rate at whcih an ecosystems producers convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass |
| Net primary productivity (NPP) | the amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem |
| Soil | the loose, weathered material on earth's surface in which plants can grow |
| Weathering | the chemical and physical processes that break down rock at earth's surface |
| Soil horizons | distinct layers in soil |
| Soil profile | all the layers or horizons that make up a soil in a particular place |
| Infiltration | water absorbed by the soil and funneled down to groundwater |
| Leaching | various chemicals in upper layers of soil are dissolved and carried to lower layers and, in some cases, to groundwater |
| Soil texture | the proportion of sand, silt, and clay in soil |
| nutrients | all the chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life |
| combustion | burning something; ex: combustion of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is one way humans negatively impact the carbon cycle |
| sedimentation | the process in which soil particles and decaying organic matter accumulate in layers on the ground or at the bottom of large bodies of water, contributing to the formation of sedimentary rock |
| legumes | plants that have n-fixing bacterian in their root nodules; associated with n-cycle; ex: clover, soy beans, alfalfa |
| nitrogen fixation | atmospheric nitrogen gas (N2) being converted into ammonia (NH3) by specialized bacteria in the root nodules of legumes and then converted to ammonium ions (NH4+) to be used by plants |
| nitrification | specialized soil bacteria convert ammonia (NH3) and ammonium ions (NH4+) into nitrite ions (NO2-) and then to nitrate ions (NO3-) which can be then taken up by plants |
| ammonification | specialized decomposer bacteria in soil convert decomposing organic n-containing wastes into inorganic compounds of ammonia (NH3) and water-soluble salts containing ammonium ions (NH4+) |
| denitrification | nitrogen leaves soil and goes back into atmosphere as n-gas (N2) when bacteria convert ammonia (NH3) and ammonium ions (NH4+) back into nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate ions (NO3-) and then back into n-gas (N2) |
| eutrophication | adding excess nutrients to a body of water (like nitrogen and phosphorus) which causes an increase in algae and phytoplankton growth making water turbid (cloudy) and eventally low in dissolved oxygen once the dead algae/phytoplankton sinks to the bottome of the body of water and is decomposed by bacteria |
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