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A comprehensive review of key concepts in ecology, covering topics such as biotic and abiotic factors, ecosystems, biomes, population dynamics, and nutrient cycles. It presents a series of questions and answers, designed to test understanding and reinforce learning. Particularly useful for students preparing for a final exam in ecology.
Typology: Exams
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ecology - CORRECT ANSWER-is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their environment. biotic factors - CORRECT ANSWER-Living factors in an organism's environment abiotic factors - CORRECT ANSWER-Nonliving factors in an organism's environment biosphere - CORRECT ANSWER-a thin layer around Earth that extends from several kilometers above the earth's surface down to the bottom of the ocean. biome - CORRECT ANSWER-a large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities. ecosystem - CORRECT ANSWER-a biological community and all of the abiotic factors that affect it. habitat - CORRECT ANSWER-an area where an organism lives. niche - CORRECT ANSWER-the role or position that an organism has in its environment. biological community - CORRECT ANSWER-a group of interacting populations that occupy the same geographic area at the same time.
competition - CORRECT ANSWER-occurs when more than one organism uses a resource at the same time predation - CORRECT ANSWER-when one species preys upon and eats another species for food. symbiosis - CORRECT ANSWER-the close relationship between two species parasitism - CORRECT ANSWER-when one organism benefits at the expense of another. population - CORRECT ANSWER-a group of individuals of the same species inhabiting the same area. organism - CORRECT ANSWER-an individual living system latitude - CORRECT ANSWER-The distance of any point on the surface of Earth north or south from the equator weather - CORRECT ANSWER-the condition of the atmosphere at a specific place and time. climate - CORRECT ANSWER-The average weather conditions in an area tundra - CORRECT ANSWER-soggy summers; permafrost; cold and dark much of the year boreal forest - CORRECT ANSWER-summers are short and moist; winters are long, cold, and dry temperate forest - CORRECT ANSWER-well-defined seasons; summers are hot, winters are cold temperate woodland - CORRECT ANSWER-summers are very hot and dry; winters are cool and wet
temperate grassland - CORRECT ANSWER-summers are hot; winters are cold; moderate rainfall; fires possible desert - CORRECT ANSWER-varying temperatures; low rainfall tropical savanna - CORRECT ANSWER-summers are hot and rainy; winters are cool and dry tropical seasonal forest - CORRECT ANSWER-rainfall is seasonal tropical rain forest - CORRECT ANSWER-humid all year; hot and wet mountains - CORRECT ANSWER-such as temperature and precipitation, change with increasing elevation 2.5 - CORRECT ANSWER-percentage of freshwater on the Earth littoral zone - CORRECT ANSWER-area closest to the shore in lakes and ponds limnetic zone - CORRECT ANSWER-open water area that is well lit and is dominated by plankton in lakes/ponds profundal zone - CORRECT ANSWER-deepest areas of a large lake wetlands - CORRECT ANSWER-Areas of land such as marshes, swamps, and bogs that are saturated with water and that support aquatic plants intertidal zone - CORRECT ANSWER-a narrow band where the ocean meets land
photic zone - CORRECT ANSWER-is shallow enough that sunlight is able to penetrate; in the ocean aphotic zone - CORRECT ANSWER-below photic zone; an area where sunlight is unable to penetrate. benthic zone - CORRECT ANSWER-an area along the ocean floor that consists of sand, silt, and dead organisms abyssal zone - CORRECT ANSWER-deepest region of the ocean mutualism - CORRECT ANSWER-the relationship between two or more organisms that benefit each other commensalism - CORRECT ANSWER-when one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed autotrophs - CORRECT ANSWER-produce food from abiotic factors (plants, etc.) heterotrophs - CORRECT ANSWER-get their energy by consuming other organisms detritivores - CORRECT ANSWER-eat fragments of dead matter and return nutrients to soil, air, and water for reuse food chain - CORRECT ANSWER-a simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem. trophic level - CORRECT ANSWER-Each step in a food chain or food web biomass pyramid - CORRECT ANSWER-shows the relative amounts of energy, mass or numbers of organisms at each trophic level in an organism
biological magnification - CORRECT ANSWER-occurs when toxins become more concentrated in successive levels of a food web limiting factor - CORRECT ANSWER-Any abiotic factor or biotic factor that restricts the numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms tolerance - CORRECT ANSWER-he ability of any organism to survive when subjected to abiotic factors or biotic factors zone of intolerance - CORRECT ANSWER-zone where organisms cannot survive zone of physiological stress - CORRECT ANSWER-zone where small numbers can survive these difficult conditions optimal zone - CORRECT ANSWER-zone where a stable healthy population survives range of tolerance - CORRECT ANSWER-An upper limit and lower limit that include the zone of physiological stress and optimal zone in which an organism can survive ecological succession - CORRECT ANSWER-The change in an ecosystem that happens when one community replaces another as a result of changing abiotic and biotic factors primary succession - CORRECT ANSWER-the establishment of a community in an area of exposed rock that does not have any topsoil secondary succession - CORRECT ANSWER-the orderly and predictable change that takes place after a community of organisms has been removed but the soil has remained intact
population ecology - CORRECT ANSWER-The study of populations in relation to their environment population density - CORRECT ANSWER-the number of organisms per unit area population range - CORRECT ANSWER-he geographic area where a species lives density-independent factor - CORRECT ANSWER-Any factor in the environment that does not depend on the number of members in a population per unit area density-dependent factor - CORRECT ANSWER-Any factor in the environment that depends on the number of members in a population per unit area population growth rate - CORRECT ANSWER-explains how fast a given population grows carrying capacity - CORRECT ANSWER-maximum number of individuals in a species that an environment can support for the long term demography - CORRECT ANSWER-The study of human population size, density, distribution, movement, and birth and death rates zero population growth - CORRECT ANSWER-occurs when the birthrate equals the death rate age structure - CORRECT ANSWER-the number of males and females in each of three age groups evaporation - CORRECT ANSWER-The sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam, which goes into the air
transpiration - CORRECT ANSWER-plants releasing water through stomata to atmosphere condensation - CORRECT ANSWER-Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. precipitation - CORRECT ANSWER-Clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow long term carbon cycle - CORRECT ANSWER-cycle where plants and animals die depositing carbon in the ground short term carbon cycle - CORRECT ANSWER-Plants convert carbon in the air to organic matter 78% - CORRECT ANSWER-how much of the Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen? nitrogen fixation - CORRECT ANSWER-the process by which nitrogen is taken from its natural form (N2) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds that can be used by plants assimilation - CORRECT ANSWER-the process of plants absorbing phosphorus through their root hairs denitrification - CORRECT ANSWER-the reduction of nitrites back into the largely inert nitrogen gas (N2) short term phosphorus cycle - CORRECT ANSWER-cycle where Phosphorus is cycled from the soil to producers (autotrophs) and then from the producers to consumers (herbivores) and back to the soil.
long term phosphorus cycle - CORRECT ANSWER- Phosphorus deposited in sediment becomes rock. eutrophication - CORRECT ANSWER-an increase in the concentration of chemical nutrients, such as phosphorous, in an ecosystem r-selected species - CORRECT ANSWER-many offspring; few of which survive k-selected species - CORRECT ANSWER-fewer offspring considering significant parental development