Ecology and Ecosystems flashcards

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What is a population in ecology?Populations and Carrying Capacity: Members of a species in a defined area and time.
What is population density?Populations and Carrying Capacity: Individuals per unit area or volume.
What is spatial distribution?Populations and Carrying Capacity: How individuals are arranged across an area.
What is detection bias?Populations and Carrying Capacity: Some individuals being more likely to be observed than others.
What is net population change?Populations and Carrying Capacity: Births minus deaths plus immigration minus emigration.
What is exponential growth?Populations and Carrying Capacity: Growth at a constant positive per-capita rate under simplifying assumptions.
What is logistic growth?Populations and Carrying Capacity: A model in which growth slows as abundance approaches K.
What is carrying capacity?Populations and Carrying Capacity: A context-dependent population level supported by available conditions.
What is a density-dependent factor?Populations and Carrying Capacity: A factor whose effect changes with population density.
What is a density-independent disturbance?Populations and Carrying Capacity: An event whose immediate effect need not depend on density.
What is a limiting resource?Populations and Carrying Capacity: A resource whose shortage constrains population performance.
Does density dependence mean a factor is living?Populations and Carrying Capacity: No; it describes a relationship to density.
What is a habitat?Species Interactions: A physical place or setting where an organism lives.
What is an ecological niche?Species Interactions: An organism’s resource use, conditions, and ecological interactions.
What is competition?Species Interactions: Interaction over a shared limiting resource.
What is resource partitioning?Species Interactions: Differences in resource use that reduce direct overlap.
What is predation?Species Interactions: Consumption of one organism by another in a broad ecological sense.
What is herbivory?Species Interactions: Consumption of plant or algal material.
What is a refuge?Species Interactions: A place or condition reducing exposure to consumers.
What is an indirect ecological effect?Species Interactions: An effect on a species mediated through another interaction.
What is mutualism?Species Interactions: An interaction with net benefit to both partners under stated conditions.
What is parasitism?Species Interactions: An interaction benefiting one species while harming a host.
What is commensalism?Species Interactions: One benefits while no effect on the other is detected in context.
What is symbiosis?Species Interactions: A close, often persistent association between species.
What is a primary producer?Food Webs and Energy Flow: An organism that fixes inorganic carbon using light or chemical energy.
What is a consumer?Food Webs and Energy Flow: An organism obtaining organic matter from other organisms.
What is a decomposer?Food Webs and Energy Flow: An organism that breaks down organic material and releases nutrients.
Which way do food-web arrows point?Food Webs and Energy Flow: From resource or food toward its consumer.
What is GPP?Food Webs and Energy Flow: Total producer carbon-fixation rate over a defined area and time.
What is NPP?Food Webs and Energy Flow: GPP minus producer respiration in a consistent accounting.
What is transfer efficiency?Food Webs and Energy Flow: The fraction transferred between specified trophic levels.
Is the 10 percent rule exact?Food Webs and Energy Flow: No; efficiencies vary across ecosystems and methods.
What is a food web?Food Webs and Energy Flow: A network of feeding relationships.
What is a trophic cascade?Food Webs and Energy Flow: Effects across trophic levels mediated by changes in consumers.
What is an indirect effect?Food Webs and Energy Flow: A response transmitted through other species or interactions.
Can a food-web diagram predict exact population counts alone?Food Webs and Energy Flow: No; it omits rates and environmental conditions.
What is evaporation?Matter Cycles: Liquid water becoming vapor.
What is condensation?Matter Cycles: Water vapor becoming liquid droplets.
What is transpiration?Matter Cycles: Water vapor released from plants, mainly through leaves.
What is infiltration?Matter Cycles: Water entering soil or permeable ground.
What is a carbon reservoir?Matter Cycles: A pool holding carbon for a measurable time.
What is carbon fixation?Matter Cycles: Incorporation of inorganic CO₂ into organic molecules.
What is a carbon flux?Matter Cycles: Movement of carbon between reservoirs per time.
Why does net CO₂ exchange differ from gross photosynthesis?Matter Cycles: Respiration and other processes occur simultaneously.
What is nitrogen fixation?Matter Cycles: Conversion of atmospheric N₂ into biologically available nitrogen.
What is nitrification?Matter Cycles: Microbial oxidation of reduced nitrogen toward nitrate.
What is assimilation of nitrogen?Matter Cycles: Incorporation of inorganic nitrogen into organic molecules.
What is denitrification?Matter Cycles: Microbial return of nitrate-derived nitrogen to atmospheric gases.
What is ecological succession?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Change in community composition over time.
What is primary succession?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Community development on a new surface with little established soil.
What is secondary succession?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Community change after disturbance where soil or legacies remain.
What is a biological legacy?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Surviving organisms or materials influencing recovery after disturbance.
What is species richness?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Number of species in a defined sample.
What is evenness?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Similarity of relative abundances across species.
What is functional diversity?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Variety of ecological roles or traits.
What is resilience?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Capacity to recover or reorganize after disturbance under stated measures.
What is habitat fragmentation?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Breaking connected habitat into smaller, more isolated patches.
What is nutrient enrichment?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: Increased supply of nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus.
What is a monitoring baseline?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: A starting measurement for evaluating later change.
Why use comparison sites?Ecosystem Change and Biodiversity: To help separate an intervention effect from other trends.