Chapter 1: Nature of Ecology Flashcards
The scientific study of the relationships between organisms and their natural environment, living and nonliving
Ecology
The biotic community and its abiotic environment, functioning as a system
Ecosystem
Applied to the living component of an ecosystem
Biotic
Nonliving
The abiotic component of the environment includes soil, water, air, light, nutrients, and the like
Abiotic
The lowest level of organization of ecological systems
Refers to an individual organism within the environment
Individual
A group of individuals of the same species living in a given area at a given time
Population
A group of interacting plants and animals inhabiting a given area
Community
An area of land (or water) composed of a patchwork of communities and ecosystems
Landscape
Major regional ecological community of plants and animals
Usually corresponds to plant ecologists’ and European ecologists’ classification of plant formations and life zones
Biome
Thin layer about Earth in which all living organisms exist
Biosphere
Proposed explanation for a phenomenon
We should be able to test it, accepting or rejecting it based on experimentation
Hypothesis
An integrated set of hypotheses that together explain a broader set of observations than any single hypothesis
Theory
The investigator controls the independent variable in a predetermined way to reflect observed variations across the landscape and monitors the response of the dependent variable
There can be a lot of variability, however.
Field experiment
The investigator has more control over the environmental conditions and may have further evidence in support of their hypothesis
The results are not directly applicable in the field, however.
Laboratory experiment
In theoretical and systems ecology, an abstraction or simplification of a natural phenomenon, developed to predict a new phenomenon or to provide insight into existing ones.
Model
