769591
Description
Flashcards by Sarah-Karolina V, updated more than 1 year ago
|
Created by Sarah-Karolina V
over 10 years ago
|
|
| Question | Answer |
| biosphere | the part of the Earth inhabited by organisms |
| ecosystem | a community of interdependent organisms and the physical environment they inhabit |
| Biotic | living part of of an ecosystem (e.g the community) |
| abiotic | the non-living part of an ecosystem (e.g air, wind, temperature, water, soil, climate) |
| producer | plants etc. |
| primary consumer | herbivores |
| secondary consumer | carnivores |
| tertiary consumer | top carnivore |
| trophic level | the position that an organism occupies in a food chain |
| pyramid of numbers | represents the number of organisms in coexisting in an ecosystem |
| pyramids of biomass | represents the amount of biological mass at each trophic level |
| species | a group of organisms that interbreed and capable of producing fertile offspring |
| population | a group of organisms of the same species living in the same ares at the same time with the capability of interbreeding |
| community | a group of populations living and interacting with each other in a common habitat |
| habitat | the environment in which a species normally lives |
| niche | is a species' share of a habitat and resources - this is specific to the one specie |
| mutualism | an interaction in which both species benefit |
| Parasitism | relationship where one organism - the parasite - benefits at the expense of another - the host |
| dichotomous keys | a methode used to identify organisms |
| Biome | a collection of ecosystems sharing similar climatic conditions |
| photosynthesis | the process by which plants transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen in the presence of light energy and chlorophyl |
| respiration | this is the release of energy from food in the form of breaking down glucose using oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide, water and energy |
| Gross productivity | the total gain in energy or biomass per unit area or per unit time |
| net productivity | the gain in energy or biomass per unit are or time, remaining after loss of respiratory losses |
| primary productivity | the gain in energy or biomass per unit are or time by producers. could be gross or net |
| secondary productivity | the gain in energy or biomass per unit are or time by consumers through feeding and absorption. |
| limiting factor | they restrict the growth of a population or prevent it from growing any further |
| carrying capacity | this is the maximum number of species that can be sustainably supported by a given environment. |
| Density dependant factors | these are limiting factors that are related to populations density. they are biotic factors. e.g and can be internal or external |
| density-independant factors | these are abiotic limiting factors therefore do not depend on population size |
| K - strategists | species that produce and small number of offspring thus increasing their survival rate and adapting them for living in longterm climax communities |
| r - strategists | species that tend produce a large number of offspring so that they are well adapted to colonise new habitats rapidly. |
| succession | this is the process of change over time in a community. changes within organisms often cause changes in the physical environment thus allowing another community to become established replacing the former one through competition |
| sere | the set of communities that succeed one other over time over the course of succession at a given location |
| Zonation | the arrangement of plants communities into parallel bands in response to change over distance - relates to climate and latitude or altitude |
Want to create your own Flashcards for free with GoConqr? Learn more.