Unit 2- The Living World: Biodiversity Vocab

Question 1

Artificial Selection

Answer 1

Natural selection conducted under human direction. Examples include selective breeding of crop plants, pets, and livestock.

Question 2

Biodiversity(biological diversity)

Answer 2

The variety of life across all levels of biological organization, including the diversity of species, their genes, their populations, and their communities.

Question 3

Biosphere

Answer 3

The sum total of all the planet’s living organisms and the abiotic portions of the environment with which they interact.

Question 4

Climax Community

Answer 4

In the traditional view of ecological succession, a community that remains in place with little modification until disturbance restarts the successional process. Today, ecologist recognize that community change is more valuable and less predictable than originally thought and that assemblages of species may instead form complex mosaics in time and space.

Question 5

Coevolution

Answer 5

Process by which two or more species evolve in response to one another. Parasites and hosts may coevolve, as flowering plants and their pollinators.

Question 6

Convergent Evolution

Answer 6

The evolutionary process by which very unrelated species acquire similar traits as they adopt to selective pressures from similar environments.

Question 7

Cultural Ecosystem Services

Answer 7

are the non-material benefits people obtain from nature. They include recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, physical and mental health benefits and spiritual experiences. They contribute to a sense of place, foster social cohesion and are essential for human health and well-being.

Question 8

Disturbance

Answer 8

An event that affects environmental conditions rapidly and drastically, resulting in changes to the community and ecosystem. Disturbance can be natural or it can be caused by people.

Question 9

Ecological Tolerance

Answer 9

The range of abiotic conditions in which a species can survive.

Question 10

Ecosystem Service

Answer 10

An essential service an ecosystem provides the supports life and makes economic activity possible. For example, ecosystems naturally purified air and water, cycle nutrients, provide plants to be pollinated by animals, and receive and recycle waste we generate.

Question 11

Endemic

Answer 11

Native or restricted to a particular geographic region. An endemic species occurs in one area and know where else in the world.

Question 12

Evolution

Answer 12

Genetically based change in the appearance, functioning, and/or behavior of organisms across generations, often by the process of natural selection.

Question 13

Extinction

Answer 13

The disappearance of an entire species from earth.

Question 14

Fossil

Answer 14

The remains, impression, or trace of an animal or plant the past geological ages that has been preserved in rock or sediments.

Question 15

Fossil Record

Answer 15

The cumulative body of fossils worldwide, which paleontologist study to infer the history of past life on Earth.

Question 16

Generalists

Answer 16

A species that can survive in a wide array of habitats or use a wide array of resources.

Question 17

Genetic Diversity

Answer 17

A measurements of the differences in DNA composition among individuals within a given species.

Question 18

Habitat

Answer 18

The specific environment in which an organism lives, includes both biotic and abiotic factors.

Question 19

Habitat Diversity

Answer 19

Refers to the range of habitats present in a region.

Question 20

Indicator Species

Answer 20

Is an organism whose presence, absence or abundance reflects a specific environmental condition. Indicator species can signal a change in a biological condition of a particular ecosystem and thus maybe use as a proxy to diagnose the health of an ecosystem.

Question 21

Island Biogeography Theory

Answer 21

Theory initially applied to oceanic islands to explain how species come to be distributed among them. Researchers have increasingly applied the theory to islands of habitat (patches of one type of habitat isolated with “seas”of others). Aspects of the theory include immigration and extinction rates, the effect of island size (area effect), and the effect of distance from the mainland (distance effect). Full name is the equilibrium theory of island biogeography.

Question 22

Keystone Species

Answer 22

A species that has especially far-reaching effect on a community.

Question 23

Limiting Factors

Answer 23

A physical, chemical, or biological characteristic of the environment that restrains population growth.

Question 24

Mass Extinction Events

Answer 24

The extinction of a large portion of the world’s species in a very short time period due to some extreme and rapid change or catastrophic event. Earth has seen five massive extinction events in the past half-billion years.

Question 25

Migration

Answer 25

Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another.

Question 26

Mutations

Answer 26

An accidental change in DNA that may range in magnitude from the deletion, substitution, or addition of a single nucleotide to a change affecting entire sets of chromosomes. Mutations provide the raw material for evolutionary change.

Question 27

Native species

Answer 27

Is a plant or animal that has always been a part of a particular environment.

Question 28

Natural Selection

Answer 28

The process by which traits that enhance survival and reproduction are passed on more frequently to future generations of organisms than traits that do not, thus altering the genetic makeup of populations through time. Natural selection acts on genetic variation and is a primary driver of evolution.

Question 29

Pioneer Species

Answer 29

A species that arrives earliest, beginning the ecological process of secession in a terrestrial or aquatic community.

Question 30

Population Bottleneck

Answer 30

Is an event that drastically reduces the size of a population.

Question 31

Primary Succession

Answer 31

A stereotypical series of changes as an ecological community develops over time, beginning with a lifeless substrate. The terrestrial systems, primary succession begins with a bare expanse of rock, sand, or sediment becomes newly exposed to the atmosphere and pioneer species arrive.

Question 32

Provisioning Services

Answer 32

Is any type of benefit to people that can be extracted from nature.

Question 33

Regulating Services

Answer 33

Is the benefit provided by ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena. Regulating services include pollination, decomposition, water purification, erosion and flood control, and carbon storage and climate regulation.

Question 34

Relative Abundance

Answer 34

The extent to which numbers of individuals of different species are equal or skewed. One way to express species diversity.

Question 35

Secondary Succession

Answer 35

A stereotypical series of changes as an ecological community develops over time, beginning when some event disrupts or dramatically alters an existing community.

Question 36

Specialists

Answer 36

A species that can survive only in a narrow range of habitats that contain very specific resources.

Question 37

Species

Answer 37

A population or a group of populations of a particular type of organism whose members share certain characteristics and can breed freely with one another and produce fertile offspring. Different biologists may have different approaches to diagnosing species boundaries.

Question 38

Species Diversity

Answer 38

The number and variety of species in the world or in a particular region.

Question 39

Species Evenness

Answer 39

Is a description of distribution of abundance across species in the community. Species evenness is highest when all species in a sample have the same abundance. Evenness approaches zero as relative abundance vary.

Question 40

Species Richness

Answer 40

The number of species in a particular region. One way to express species diversity.

Question 41

Secession

Answer 41

A stereotypical series of changes in the composition and structure of a geological community through time.

Question 42

Supporting Services

Answer 42

Are ecosystem services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. Some examples include biomass production, production of atmospheric oxygen, soil formation and retention, nutrient cycling, and provisioning of habitat.

Question 43

Trophic Cascade

Answer 43

A series of changes in the population sizes of organisms at different trophic levels in a food chain, occurring when predators at high trophic levels indirectly promote populations of organisms at low trophic levels by keeping species at intermediate trophic levels in check. Trophic cascades may become apparent when a top predator is eliminated from a system.