Chapter 1 Vocabulary

Question 1

Biosphere

Answer 1

All the environments, or the entire portion of Earth inhabited by life, the sum of all of the planet’s ecosystems

Question 2

Community

Answer 2

Entire array of organisms inhabiting an ecosystem, assemblage of all organisms potentially living and interacting together in a particular area

Question 3

Ecosystem

Answer 3

All the organisms in a given area along with the nonliving (abiotic) factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment

Question 4

Population

Answer 4

A group of interacting individuals belonging to one species and living in the same geographic area

Question 5

Organism

Answer 5

An individual living thing, such as a bacterium, fungus, protist, plant, or animal

Question 6

Organ system

Answer 6

A group of organs that work together in performing vital body functions

Question 7

Organ

Answer 7

A structure consisting of several tissues adapted as a group to perform specific functions

Question 8

Tissue

Answer 8

A cooperative unit of many similar cells that perform a specific function within a multicellular organism

Question 9

Cell

Answer 9

A basic unit of living matter separated from its environment by a plasma membrane; the fundamental structural unit of a life.

Question 10

organelle

Answer 10

A structure with a specialized function within a cell

Question 11

Molecule

Answer 11

A group of 2 or more atoms held together by covalent bonds

Question 12

Atom

Answer 12

The smallest unit of mater that retains the properties of an element

Question 13

Producers

Answer 13

Organisms that make organic food molecules from CO2, H2O, and other inorganic raw materials; a plant, alga, or autotrophic bacterium

Question 14

Consumers

Answer 14

Organisms that obtain their food by eating plants or by eating animals that have eaten plants

Question 15

Decomposers

Answer 15

An organism that derives its energy from organic wastes and dead organisms.

Question 16

Emergent Properties

Answer 16

New Properties that emerge with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases

Question 17

System

Answer 17

A more complex organization formed from a combination of components

Question 18

Prokaryotic cell

Answer 18

A type of cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles, found only in the domains Bacteria and Archaea

Question 19

Eukaryotic cell

Answer 19

A type of cell that has a membrane-enclosed nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles. All organisms except bacteria and archaea are composed of eukaryotic cells.

Question 20

species

Answer 20

A group whose members possess similar anatomical characteristics and have the ability to interbreed

Question 21

Taxonomy

Answer 21

The branch of biology concerned with identifying, naming, and classifying species

Question 22

Kingdoms

Answer 22

In classification, the broad taxonomic category above phylum or division

Question 23

domains

Answer 23

A taxonomic category above the kingdom level, the three domains of life are Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya.

Question 24

Bacteria

Answer 24

One of two prokaryotic domains of life, the other being Archawa.

Question 25

Archaea

Answer 25

One of 2 prokaryotic domains of life, the other being Bacteria

Question 26

Prokaryotes

Answer 26

An organism with prokaryotic cells

Question 27

Eukaryores

Answer 27

An organism with eukaryotic cells

Question 28

Eukarya

Answer 28

The domain of eukaryotes, organisms made of eukaryotic cells, includes all protists, plants, fungi, and animals.

Question 29

theory

Answer 29

A widely accepted explanatory idea that is broad in scope and supported by a large body of evidence

Question 30

natural selection

Answer 30

Differential success in reproduction by different phenotypes resulting from interactions with the environment. Evolution occurs when natural selection produces changes in the relative frequencies of alleles in a population’s gene pool.

Question 31

Evolutinary adaptation

Answer 31

An inherited characteristic that enhances an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment

Question 32

Controlled experiment

Answer 32

E component of the process of science whereby a scientist carries out two parallel tests, an experimental test and a control test. The experimental test differs from the control by one factor, the variable.

Question 33

tehcnology

Answer 33

The practical application of scientific knowledge

Question 34

hypothesis

Answer 34

A tentative explanation a scientist proposes for a specific phenomenon that has been observed

Question 35

scientific method

Answer 35

A process of inquiry that involves hypotheses, predictions, and tests of predictions

Question 36

Inductive reasoning

Answer 36

A kind of reasoning that derives general principles from a large number of specific observations

Question 37

Deductive reasoning

Answer 37

A kind of reasoning used in hypothesis-based science to come up with ways to test hypotheses. The reasoning flows from general to the specific.

Question 38

Discovery science

Answer 38

A scientific approach which is mostly about explaining nature

Question 39

Individual variation

Answer 39

Differences in population that ensure many varied traits for future generations to inherit

Question 40

Overproduction and competition

Answer 40

The fact that a species produces a superfluous amount of offspring and that inevitably because there are not enough resources, the species will compete for resources

Question 41

Unequal Reproductive Success

Answer 41

Darwin inferred from his observations that individuals are unequal in their likelihood of surviving and reproducing. Individuals with traits best suited to environment will survive longer to have more offspring