Ecology Terminology Flashcards
(21 cards)
Define: Stewardship
A way of acting that involves taking personal responsibility for the management and care of something.
Define: Environment
All things living and non-living that interact.
Define: Environmental/ Planetary Stwedardship
Working to take care of the Earth and its environemnt.
Define: Sustainability
In the environment, sustainability means that populations of plants, animals and other living organisms can continue to interact and reproduce indefinitely.
Define: Biodiversity
The number of different types of organisms in an area (more organisms means higher biodiversity).
Define: Ecology
The study of how organisms interact with each other as well as with their environment.
Define: System
A group of individual parts that interact as a whole to accomplish a task. The parts of a system are called the components. Everything in the system is connected.
Define: Ecosystem
A complex system in which living things interact with each other and with the physical environment.
Define: Biotic
Components in an ecosystem that are living (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, algae, etc.)
Define: Abiotic
Components in an ecosystem that are non-living (rocks, aie, wtaer, temperature, sunlight, salt concentration, etc.)
Define: Species
A group of similar organisms in an ecosystem that can reproduce with each other and produce fertile offspring.
Define: Population
A group of members of the same species that live in the same area.
Define: Habitat
The physical environment that an organism lives in.
Define: Biome
A large geographical region that contains similar ecosystems. They are classified based types of plants that grow in them, the average temperature and the amount of rainfall.
Define: Deciduous Forest
A forest that contains trees that lose their leaves in the fall (maple and oak). Example: Southern Ontario
Define: Boreal Forests
A forest that contain trees that have cones and needles (spruce and fir). Example: Northern Ontario
Define: Tundra
A region with no trees, only small shrubs, hardy grasses, mosses and lichens. Example: coastline on Hudson Bay to the west of James Bay.
Define: Grasslands
A region with few trees but are covered in various kinds of grasses and shrubs. Example: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and a small part of Alberta.
Define: Temperate Coniferous Forests
Forests that have different types of needle and cone bearing trees than the boreal forest (Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and Western Hemlock). Example: British Columbia.
Define: Marine Biomes
An aquatic biome with water that has a high salt content (oceans). Ontario has marine biomes along Hudson Bay and James Bay.
Define: Freshwater Biomes
An aquatic biome where the water has a very low salt content (lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands). Ontario has freshwater biomes everywhere, especially The Great Lakes.
