7/27/2019 APES define

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apes-define 1/2

1. Population: the number of organisms or inhabitants in a selected area. Humans in CA.

2. Community: a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each

other. Community in swamps.

3. Ecosystem: A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical

environment including abiotic and biotic factors. River ecosystem.4. Biosphere: All the parts of the planet that are inhabited by living things; sum of all Earth's ecosystems.

Earth.5. Genetic diversity: the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.

6. Gross primary productivity (GPP):The rate at which producers in an ecosystem capture energy

7. Net primary productivity (NPP): the rate at which biomass accumulates in an ecosystem

8. Abiotic factors: the non-living parts of an organism's habitat. Water.

9. Bioaccumulation: The accumulation of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in various tissues of a

living organism.

10. Biotic factors: living parts of an organism's habitat. Trees.

11. Biomagnification: accumulation of pollutants at successive levels of the food chain

12. Range of tolerance: Range of chemical and physical conditions that must be maintained for 

 populations of a particular species to stay alive and grow, develop, and function normally

13. Limiting factor principle: Too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent growth of a

 population even if all other factors are at or near the optimum range of tolerance.14. Trophic level: Each step in a food chain or food web. Top.

15. Producers (autotrophs): uses solar energy to produce usable energy through photosynthesis. Grass.

16. Photosynthesis: Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.

17. Chemosynthesis: In which chemical energy is used to produce carbohydrates18. Consumers (heterotrophs): an organism that gets food from another organism or producer. Lions.

19. Primary consumers: An organism that eats producers. Cow.

20. Secondary consumers: Carnivores that eat herbivores. Tiger.

21. Third or higher-level consumers: Consumes carnivores and generally get the least energy from the

organism. Humans

22. Omnivore: A consumer that eats both plants and animals. Humans.

23. Carnivore: Consumer that only eats meat. Tiger.

24. Herbivore: Consumer that only eats plants. Pig.25. Decomposer: Breaks down wastes and dead organisms. Worm.

26. Detritus feeder or Detritivore: A consumer that feeds on dead plants and animals. Mushroom.

27. Detritus: Dead organic matter. Carcass.

28. Food Chain: a community of organisms where members are eaten by another member 

29. Food Web: a community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains

30. Biomass: A measure of the total dry mass of organisms within a particular region31. Ecological efficiency: the proportion of consumed energy that can be passed from one trophic level to

another 

32. Habitat: An area that provides an organism with its basic needs for survival.

33. Biodiversity: The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.

34. Ecological niche: A specific role of a species within an ecosystem, including its use of resources, andrelationships with other species.

35. Generalist species: Species with a broad ecological niche. Humans.

36. Specialist species: Species with a narrow ecological niche. Elephants.

37. Native species: Species that normally live and thrive in a particular ecosystem

38. Nonnative species: Species that migrate into an ecosystem or are deliberately or accidentally

introduced into an ecosystem by humans.

38. Invasive species: plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native. Crayfish.

39. Indicator species: Species that serve as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being

7/27/2019 APES define

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/apes-define 2/2

degraded. Frog.

40. Keystone species: A species that influences many other species in an ecosystem. Otter.

41. Foundation species: Species that plays a major role in shaping communities by creating and

enhancing a habitat that benefits other species. Otter.

42. Intraspecific competition: Competition among members of the same species. Lions.43. Interspecific competition: Competition between members of different species. Bugs.

44. Predation: An interaction in which one organism kills another for food. Lion and zebra.45. Parasitism: A relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other is harmed. Botfly.

46. Mutualism: A relationship between two species in which both species benefit. Whaleshark; feeder.

47. Commensalism: A relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other is neither 

harmed nor benefited.

48. Resource partitioning: The division of environmental resources by coexisting species such that the

niche of each species differs by one or more significant factors from the niches of all coexisting species

49. Age structure: Percentage of the population (or number of people of each sex) at each age level in a

 population.

50. Intrinsic rate of increase (r): rate at which the population of a species would grow if it had unlimited

resources

51. Environmental resistance: the limiting effect of environmental conditions on the numerical growth of 

a population52. Carrying capacity: Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support.

53. Biotic potential: Maximum rate at which the population of a given species can increase when there are

no limits on its rate of growth.

54. Logistic growth: Growth pattern in which a population's growth rate slows or stops following a periodof exponential growth

55. Exponential growth: Growth pattern in which the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant

rate

56. r-selected species: Species that reproduce early in their life span and produce large numbers of 

usually small and short-lived offspring in a short period.

57. k-selected species: Species that produce a few, often fairly large offspring but invest a great deal of 

time and energy to ensure that most of those offspring reach reproductive age.

58. Biogeochemical cycle: Process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another 

59. Primary succession: An ecological succession that begins in an area where no biotic community

 previously existed

60. Secondary succession: the changes that occur as a previously damaged ecosystem recovers.

61. Asexual reproduction: Process by which a single parent reproduces by itself 

62. Survivorship curve: Graph showing the number of survivors in different age groups for a particular species.

63. Sexual reproduction: A reproductive process that involves two parents that combine their genetic

material to produce a new organism.

64. Species diversity: Number of different species in the biosphere, The number and relative abundance of species in a biological community.

65. Species richness: The number of different species in a community66. Species evenness: The relative abundances of species in a community compared with one another.