Lauren Markish

Period 7/8

Chapter 19: Introduction to Ecology

Vocabulary
Section 1:
Ecology - the study of the interactions between organisms and
the living and nonliving components of their environment.
Greenhouse Effect - the mechanism that insulates Earth from the
deep freeze of space. This is because carbon dioxide and water
vapor intercept much of the reflected heat and direct it back
toward Earth.
Biosphere - broadest, most inclusive level of organization; the thin
volume of Earth and its atmosphere that supports life.
Ecosystem - includes all of the organisms and the non-living
environment found in a particular place.
Community - all the interacting organisms living in an area.
Population - includes all the members of a species that live in one
place at one time.
Section 2:
Habitat - where an organism lives .
Biotic Factors - the living components of the environment.
Abiotic Factors - the physical and chemical characteristics of the
environment.
Tolerance Curve - a graph of performance versus values of an
environmental variable, such as temperature.
Acclimation - process by which some organisms can adjust their
tolerance to abiotic factors; occurs within the lifetime of an
individual organism.
Conformers - organisms that do not regulate their internal
conditions; they change as their external environment changes.

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Regulators - organisms that use energy to control some of their

internal conditions.
Dormancy - a state of reduced activity.
Migration - to move to another, more favorable habitat.
Resources - the energy and materials the species needs.
Niche - a species' way of life and/or the role the species plays in
its environment; includes the range of conditions that the species
can tolerate, the methods by which it obtains needed resources,
the number of offspring it has, its time of reproduction, and all of
its other interactions with its environment.
Fundamental Niche - the range of conditions that a species can
potentially tolerate and the range of resources it can potentially
use.
Realized Niche - the range of resources a species actually uses.
Generalists - species with broad niches; they can tolerate a range
of conditions and use a variety of resources.
Specialists - species that have narrow niches.

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Chapter 20: Populations

Vocabulary
Section 1:
Population Density - measures how crowded a population is;
always expressed as the number of individuals per unit of area or
volume.
Dispersion - the spatial distribution of individuals within the
population.
Birth Rate - the number of births occurring in a period of time.
Death Rate/Mortality Rate - the number of deaths in a period of
time.
Age Structure - the distribution of individuals among different
ages in an population.
Survivorship Curves - curves on a chart that show the likelihood of
survival at different ages throughout the lifetime of the organism.
Section 2:
Growth Rate - the amount by which a population's size changes
in a given time.
Immigration - the movement of individuals into a population.
Emigration - the movement of individuals out of the population.
Birth rate - death rate = growth rate
Exponential Model - describes a population that increases rapidly
after only a few generations.
Exponential Growth - the larger the population gets, the faster it
grows.
Limiting Factor - a factor that restrains the growth of a population
Logistic Model - builds on the exponential model but accounts for
the influence of limiting factors.

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Carrying Capacity (symbolized by K) - the number of individuals

the environment can support over a long period of time.
Logistic Growth - when a population size is at its carrying
capacity, the birth rate equals the death rate and growth stops.
Density-independent factors - reduce the population by the same
proportion, regardless of the population's size.
Density-dependent factors - include resource limitations and are
triggered by increasing population density.
Inbreeding - mating with relatives.
Section 3:
Hunter-gatherer Lifestyle - obtaining food by hunting animals and
gathering roots, berries, nuts, shellfish, and fruits.
Agricultural Revolution - when humans discovered how to
domesticate animals and cultivate certain plants for food
Developed Countries - category that includes all of the world's
modern, industrialized countries. Make up 20% of the population.
Developing Countries - category that includes most countries in
Asia and all of the countries in Central America, South America,
and Africa. Generally poorer than the more developed countries.
Make up 80% of the population.

Chapter 21: Community Ecology

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Vocabulary
Section 1:
Symbioses - the five major types of close interactions.
Predator - captures, kills, and consumes another individual.
Prey - individual hunted by the predator(s).
Mimicry - a defense in which a harmless species resembles a
poisonous or distasteful species.
Herbivores - animals that eat plants.
Secondary Compounds - chemicals from products of a plant's
metabolism.
Parasitism - a species interaction that resembles predation in that
one individual is harmed while the other individual benefits.
Parasite - the individual in parasitism that feeds on another
individual.
Host - the individual that the parasite feeds on.
Ectoparasites - external parasites; they live on their host but do
not enter the host's body.
Endoparasites - internal parasites; they live inside the host's body.
Competition - results from fundamental niche overlap; the use of
the same limited resource by two or more species.
Competitive Exclusion - principle used by ecologists to describe
situations in which one species is eliminated from a community
because of competition for the same limited resource.
Character Displacement - in which the ranges of potential
competitors overlap.

Resource Partitioning - pattern noted by Darwin that states:

competition is likely to be most intense between closely related

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

species that require the same resource. When similar species

coexist, each species uses only part of the available resources.
Mutualism - a cooperative relationship in which both species
derive some benefit.
Pollinators - animals that carry pollen.
Commensalism - an interaction in which one species benefits and
the other is not affected.
Section 2:
Species Richness - the number of species a community contains.
Species Diversity - relates the number of species in a community
to the relative abundance of each species.
Species-area Effect - relationship that states that larger areas
usually contain more species than smaller areas do.
Stability - indicates a community's resistance to change.
Section 3:
Succession - the gradual, sequential regrowth of species in an
area.
Primary Succession - the development of a community in an area
that has not supported life previously, such as bare rock, a sand
dune, or an island formed by a volcanic eruption.
Secondary Succession - the sequential replacement of species
that follows disruption of an existing community.
Pioneer Species - the species that predominate early in
succession (they tend to be small).
Climax Community - a stable end point.

Chapter 22: Ecosystems and the Biosphere

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Vocabulary
Section 1:
Producers - manufacture their own food (autotrophs).
Chemosynthesis - process that bacteria carry out, which means
they produce carbohydrates by using energy from inorganic
molecules.
Gross Primary Productivity - the rate at which producers in an
ecosystem capture energy.
Biomass - term used by ecologists to refer to the organic material
in an ecosystem.
Net Primary Productivity - rate at which biomass accumulates.
Consumers - obtain energy by eating other organisms or organic
wastes (heterotrophs).
Herbivores - eat producers.
Carnivores - eat other consumers.
Omnivores - eat both producers and consumers.
Detritivores - consumers that feed on the "garbage" of an
ecosystem.
Decomposers - break down the complex molecules in dead
tissues and wastes into simpler molecules.
Trophic Level - indicates an organism's position in the sequence of
energy transfers (as seen in figure 1).
Food Chain - a single pathway of feeding relationships among
organisms in an ecosystem that results in energy transfer (as
seen in figure 2).
Food Web - the interrelated food chains in an ecosystem (as seen
in figure 3).

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Section 2:
Ground Water - water in the soil of in underground formations of
porous rock.
Water Cycle - the movement of water between reservoirs (see
figure 1).
Transpiration - in which plants take in water through their roots,
and they release water and take in carbon dioxide through the
stomata in their leaves.
Carbon Cycle - (see figure 2)
Nitrogen Cycle - the complex pathway that nitrogen follows within
an ecosystem (see figure 3).
Nitrogen Fixation - process of converting nitrogen gas to nitrate.
Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria - convert nitrogen gas into ammonia,
then nitrite, and then nitrate, which plants can use.
Ammonification - process in which decomposers break down the
corpses and wastes of organisms and release the nitrogen they
contain as ammonia.
Nitrification - process in which bacteria in the soil take up
ammonia and oxidize it into nitrites and nitrates.
Denitrification - occurs when anaerobic bacteria break down
nitrates and release nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere.
Section 3:
Biomes - very large terrestrial ecosystems that contain a number
of smaller but related ecosystems within them.
Tundra - a cold and largely treeless biome that forms a continuous
belt across northern North America, Europe, and Asia.
Permafrost - a permanently frozen layer of soil under the surface.
Taiga - a forested biome dominated by cone-bearing evergreen
trees, such as pines, firs, hemlock, and spruce.

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Temperate Deciduous Forests - characterized by trees that lose all

of their leaves in the fall.
Temperate grasslands - dominated by grasses; usually form in the
interior of continents; rainfall patterns are too dry to support
trees.
Tropical Rain Forests - characterized by tall trees; found near the
equator in Asia, Africa, South America, and Central America.
Canopy - a continuous layer that shades the tropical rainforest's
floor.
Epiphytes - small plants that live on the branches of tall trees.
Section 4:
Photic Zone - the part of the ocean that receives sunlight (see
figure 4).
Aphotic Zone - the cold and dark depths where sunlight cannot
penetrate (see figure 4).
Intertidal Zone - area at which the tides produce a rhythmic rise
and fall of the water level (see figure 4).
Neritic Zone - extends over the continental shelf; relatively
shallow water (see figure 4).
Oceanic Zone - the deep water of the open sea (see figure 4).
Pelagic Zone - the open ocean (see figure 4).
Benthic Zone - the ocean bottom (see figure 4).
Plankton - communities of small organisms that drift with the
ocean currents.
Estuary - occurs where freshwater rivers and streams flow into the
sea.
Eutrophic - type of lake that is rich in organic matter and
vegetation.
Oligotrophic - type of lake that contains little organic matter.

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8

Lauren Markish
Period 7/8