Chapter 15 Flashcards
1
Q
What is the study of how living things interact with one another and with their physical environment?
A
ecology
2
Q
Who is a scientist who specialized in studying these interactions and discovering how organisms survive in their environments?
A
ecologist
3
Q
What is an organism’s environment of home?
A
habitat
4
Q
What are the living things in a habitat?
A
biotic factors
5
Q
What are the nonliving things in a habitat?
A
abiotic factors
6
Q
Can any organism be completely studies apart from its environment?
A
no
7
Q
What is the relatively thin layer of the Earth’s surface in which life exists?
A
biosphere
8
Q
What part of the biosphere is the air?
A
atmosphere
9
Q
What part of the biosphere is the land?
A
lithosphere
10
Q
What part of the biosphere is the water?
A
hydrosphere
11
Q
What are large geographic regions that has its own specific environmental conditions and living organisms?
A
biomes
12
Q
What is a small area within a biome that has its own specific environmental conditions and living organisms
A
ecosystem
13
Q
What are the two general categories that all ecosystems fall under?
A
terrestrial and aquatic
14
Q
What are all of the living things in a ecosystem?
A
community
15
Q
What is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same ecosystem?
A
population
16
Q
What is the smallest living thing in an environment?
A
organism
17
Q
What is an ecosystem’s ability to withstand and recover from changes?
A
stability
18
Q
What is the movement of animals into an ecosystem?
A
immigration
19
Q
What is the maximum population size that the ecosystem can currently support?
A
carrying capacity
20
Q
What is the situation that occurs if the population is above the carrying capacity?
A
overpopulation
21
Q
What is the number and variety of species living within an ecosystem?
A
biodiversity
22
Q
What are the two main factors that affect carrying capacities and biodiversity?
A
the transfer of energy and the transfer of nutrients
23
Q
What is the abiotic factor that provides the basic energy of an ecosystem?
A
the radiation from the sun
24
Q
What is an abiotic factor in an ecosystem that is very important for it influences all plant activities?
A
temperature
25
What is the abiotic factor in an ecosystem that is required for all life?
water
26
What is the abiotic factor in an ecosystem that affects the survival of plants and animals in several ways?
atmosphere
27
What is the abiotic factor in an ecosystem that give rise of differences in temperature and rainfall at different latitudes of our planet?
wind
28
What is the abiotic factor in an environment that influences the kinds of plants that grow there?
soil
29
What is a range of values that is needed for the organism's survival?
tolerance range
30
What is the creature's ideal range in which it will flourish?
optimum range
31
What is a factor outside an organism's tolerance range that may threaten survival?
limiting factor
32
What is the combination of abiotic and biotic factors in a stable ecosystem?
dynamic equilibrium
33
What are organisms that make their own food using an inorganic energy source?
autotrophs
34
What are organisms that must obtain energy from organic sources?
heterotrophs
35
What are consumers that feed on plants?
herbivores
36
What are consumes that feed on other animals?
carnivores
37
What are consumers that feed on both plants and animals?
omnivores
38
What is dead organic matter?
detritus
39
What are bacteria and fungi that feed on detritus be secreting enzymes that break it down into simpler molecules?
decomposers
40
What are carnivores that do not kill their own food but feed on dead animals instead?
detritivores
41
What is a classification that describes its feeding relationship to other organisms in its ecosystem?
trophic level
42
Which trophic level are plants, being the producers?
first trophic level
43
What is the trophic level that are herbivores, that feed on plants?
second trophic level
44
What is the trophic level that are carnivores that feed on herbivores?
third trophic level
45
What is the trophic level that is usually another carnivore?
fourth trophic level
46
What is the carnivore in the highest trophic level?
top carnivore
47
What is a model used by ecologist to show the nutritional relationships among organisms in an ecosystem?
food chain
48
How are living things classified into trophic levels?
by their position in a food chain
49
What type of consumers is an animal that eats plants directly?
primary consumers
50
What type of consumer is an animal that eats herbivores?
secondary consumers
51
What is a model that is used by ecologists to show all possible feeding relationships at each trophic level?
food web
52
What is the function or "occupation" of a living thing?
niche
53
What is a helpful way to represent information about an ecosystem?
pyramid diagram
54
What type of pyramid diagrams shows the energy transfer from one trophic level to the next?
energy pyramid
55
What type of pyramid diagram represents the total mass of living matter per unit area?
biomass pyramid
56
What is the total mass of living matter per unit area?
biomass
57
What type of pyramid diagram represents the number of organisms at each trophic level and shows that population size usually decreases at higher trophic levels?
number pyramid
58
What is a close relationship between two different species over a period of time, especially one in which they mutally benefit?
symbiosis
59
What is a relationship in which both organisms benefit?
mutualism
60
What is a relationship between two organisms in which one benefits while the other is harmed?
parasitism
61
What is the organism in parasitism that benefits?
parasite
62
What is the organism in parasitism that is harmed?
host
63
What is a relationship in which one organism is benefited and the other is neither harmed nor helped?
commensalism
64
What involves a predatory-prey relationship?
perdation
65
What is one organism that hunts, kills, and eats another?
predator
66
What is one organism that is hunted, killed, and eaten by another?
prey
67
What is a relationship in which two organisms compete for the same limited resources?
competition
68
What is a relationship in which one organisms inhibits another?
amensalism
69
What is a relationship in which organisms share only an indirect relationship?
neutralism
70
What is a relationship in which grazing animals feed on plants by cropping portions of the platnt without kiling it?
herbivory
71
What do food chains and energy pyramids demonstrate?
that energy moves in only one direction in an ecosystem
72
What are cycles that recycles minerals and other nutires in the environmet?
nutrient cycles
73
What is another name for nutrient cycles?
biogeochemical cycles
74
What type of nutrient cycle moves water from the soil and from water surfaces of the earth, through the atmosphere, and then back to the earth again?
hydrololic cycle
75
What type of nutrient cycle has the elements carbon and oxygen recycled through people, animals, and plants?
carbon-oxygen cycle
76
What type of nutrient cycle has phosphorus moved from the soil to producers and then to consumers?
phosphorus cycle
77
What is the combination of a region's climax vegetation and its animal populations?
climax community
78
What do ecologists use to mainly classify biomes?
plant
79
Why do ecologists use plants to classify biomes?
because they are stationary and do not move as animals do
80
What is the treeless northern biome that has long, harsh winters and permafrost?
Arctic tundra
81
What is a permanently frozen layer to soil that does not allow roots and water to penetrate deeply into the soil?
permafrost
82
What is the mountain biome that has vegetation and climatic conditions similar to those of Arctic tundra but lacks permafrost?
alpine tundra
83
What is the northern biome that has long, harsh winters and is dominated by conifers?
northern coniferous forest
84
What is the northern coniferous forest also called?
boreal forest or taiga
85
What is a part of the northern coniferous forest biome that has a warmer and wetter climate?
temperate rainforest
86
What is a part of the northern coniferous forest biome that dominates the southeastern states along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts?
southern pine forests
87
What is the biome that has well-defined seasons and is dominated by deciduous broadleaf trees?
temperate deciduous forest
88
What is the biome dominated by grasses with occasional trees?
grassland
89
What is the hot, dry biome where more water is lost through evaporation than is gained through the rain?
desert
90
What is the world's largest desert?
Sahara
91
What is the tropical biome characterized by abundant rain and a year-round growing season?
tropical rainforest
92
What means "living in trees"?
arboreal
93
What is the biome that is located in water?
aquatic biome
94
What is the aquatic biome larger or smaller than terrestrial biomes?
larger
95
What type of aquatic biome ecosystem is classified to whether the water is flowing or standing and has no salt or extremely low levels of it?
freshwater ecosystem
96
What type of aquatic ecosystem is associated with the ocean, starting from the shore and moving toward the open ocean?
marine ecosystem
97
What is the location of rich freshwater from rivers and streams meet and mix with saltwater?
estuary
98
What are formed from the remains of stony corals and algae?
coral reefs
99
What is the area located between the highest and lowest tides along the coast?
intertidal zones
100
What is the area that extends past the intertidal zone to the edge of the continental zone?
neritic zone
101
What is the area that extends from the continental shelves into the open ocean?
oceanic zones
102
What are the first organisms that colonized a disturbed ecosystem?
pioneer species
103
What is the replacement of early pioneer species by later species in an orderly progression until the climax commonality is established?
ecological succession
104
What is the ecological succession that starts with barren ground?
primary succession
105
What is the ecological succession that starts with ready soil and pioneer species?
secondary succession
106
What is man's God-given authority over nature?
dominion
107
What is man's responsibility to manage creation in a way that balances the wise use of natural resources and their conservation?
stewardship
108
What means using resources in a responsible way that allows their continued use?
conservation
109
What are natural resources that regenerates very quickly?
renewable resources
110
What are natural resources that regenerates very slowly if at all?
nonrenewable resources
111
What is the most dangerous flaw of the modern environmental movement?
it promotes a reverence for nature that belongs to God alone
