Ch. 4 Keyterms

Question 1

ecosystems

Answer 1

a community of organisms and their abiotic env.

Question 2

biotic factor

Answer 2

an environmental factor that is associated with or results from the activities of living organisms.

Question 3

abiotic factor

Answer 3

describes the nonliving part of the environmnt, including water, rocks, light, and temperature.

Question 4

organism

Answer 4

a living thing; anything that can carry out life processes independently

Question 5

species

Answer 5

a group of organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring, also the level of classification below genus and above subspecies

Question 6

population

Answer 6

a group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographical area and interbreed.

Question 7

community

Answer 7

a group of various species that live in the same habitat and interact with each other.

Question 8

habitat

Answer 8

the place where an organism usually lives.

Question 9

natural selection

Answer 9

the process by which individuals are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more succesfully than less well adapted individuals do; a theory to explain the mechanism of evolution.

Question 10

evolution

Answer 10

a heritable change in the characteristics within a population from one gen. to the next, the development of the new types of organisms from pre existing types of orgnanisms over time

Question 11

adaptation

Answer 11

the process of becoming adapted to an env.

Question 12

artificial selection

Answer 12

the selective breeding of organisms

Question 13

resistance

Answer 13

the ability to anorganism to tolerate a chemical or disease

Question 14

achaea

Answer 14

prokaryotes that re distinguished from other prokaryotes by differences in their genetics and in the make up of their cell wall

Question 15

bacteria

Answer 15

extremely small, single-celled organisms that usually have a cell wall and reproduce by cell division

Question 16

fungus

Answer 16

an organism whose cells have nuclei rigid cell walls and no chlorophyll, and that belongs to the kingdom fungi.

Question 17

protist

Answer 17

an organism that belongs to the kingdom of protista

Question 18

gymnosperm

Answer 18

a woody vascular seed plant whose seeds are not enclosed by an ovary or fruit

Question 19

angiosperm

Answer 19

a flowering plant that produces seeds within a fruit

Question 20

invertebrate

Answer 20

an animal that does not have a backbone

Question 21

vertebrate

Answer 21

an animal that has a backbone.