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| An organism that makes its own food using an environmental energy source and carbon from carbon dioxide. |
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| A nondegradable or slowly degradable substance becomes more concentrated in body tissues as it moves up through food chains. |
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| Movement of carbon from the atmosphere, through food webs and the ocean's waters and rocks, and back into the atmosphere. |
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| A heterotroph that obtains carbon and energy by feeding on tissues of other organisms |
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| Fungal or bacterial heterotroph that obtains carbon and energy from remains, products, or wastes of organisms. |
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| Removal of salt from seawater. |
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| Food web in which energy flows from producers to detritivores and decomposers. |
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| Heterotroph that feeds on particles of decaying organic matter (e.g., an earthworm). |
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| An array of species and their physical environment. |
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| Diagram of an ecosystem's trophic structure; shows usable energy at each trophic level. |
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| Nutrient enrichment of a body of water (e.g., a lake or pond). |
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| A linear flow of energy captured by primary producers (autotrophs) into ever higher trophic levels of an ecosystem. |
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| Cross-connecting food chains. |
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| Long-term rise in the temperature of the Earth's lower atmosphere. |
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| Food web in which energy flows from producers to herbivores, then to carnivores. |
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| Warming of the Earth's lower atmosphere as greenhouse gases reradiate heat energy back toward the Earth's surface. |
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| Organism unable to make its own organic compounds; feeds on autotrophs, other heterotrophs, or organic wastes. |
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| Driven by solar energy, water evaporates from the ocean into the atmosphere, moves onto the land, then back to the ocean. |
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| The replacement of ions associated with soil particles by other ions; usually leads to loss of nutrients vital to plant growth. |
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| Movement of nitrogen from the atmosphere, through the ocean, ocean sediments, soils, and food webs, then back to the atmosphere. |
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| Conversion of nitrogen gas to forms that plants can take up from soil. |
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| Movement of phosphorus from land, through food webs, to ocean sediments, then back to land. |
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| Natural or synthetic substance with which an ecosystem has no prior evolutionary experience, in terms of kinds or amounts; it has accumulated to disruptive or harmful levels. |
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| Type of autotroph that secures energy directly from the environment and stores some in its tissues. |
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| Of ecosystems, the rate at which primary producers capture and store energy in their tissues during a specified interval. |
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| Salt buildup in soil through poor drainage, evaporation, and heavy irrigation. |
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| All organisms the same number of transfer steps away from the energy input into an ecosystem. |
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| Upper level at which the ground is fully saturated. |
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| Region from which water drains into a single stream or river |
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| Of a population, the distribution of individuals among different age categories. |
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| The maximum rate of increase per individual of a population under ideal conditions. |
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Definition
| For population counts; collecting, marking, releasing, then recapturing animals representative of group. |
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Definition
| The maximum number of individuals in a population (or species) that a given environment can sustain indefinitely. |
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Definition
| A group of individuals, about the same age, that are being tracked throughout their life spans. |
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| demographic transition model |
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Definition
| Explanation of the effects of industrialization on population growth. |
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Definition
| A population's vital statistics (e.g., size, distribution, density, age structure). |
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Term
| density-dependent control |
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Definition
| Any factor, such as disease, that operates at high population densities; the birth rate falls and/or the death rate increases. |
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Term
| denisty-independent control |
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Definition
| Factor that impacts a population's birth rate or death rate regardless of density (e.g., a severe storm or flood). |
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| Length of time it takes a population to double in size. |
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| Individuals permanently leave a population. |
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| exponential growth population |
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Definition
| An increase in population size by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given interval; an outcome of an increase in the number of reproducing individuals during the preceding interval. |
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| Type of place where a species normally lives. |
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| New individuals permanently move into an area. |
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| Set of adaptations that affect life span, fertility, and onset of reproduction. |
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| Any essential resource that can halt population growth when supplies of it dwindle. |
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| logistic growth population |
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Definition
| Growth pattern in which the size of a small population increases slowly, then rapidly, and finally levels off once the carrying capacity is reached. |
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| Recurring movement of individuals from one region to another, then back. |
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| Number of individuals per specified area or specified volume of a habitat. |
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| Pattern of dispersion of individuals of a population. |
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| Number of individuals making up a population. |
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| One of the many areas of a given size and shape in which individuals of a population are counted or samples are taken. |
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| All individuals of a population that are in the pre-reproductive and reproductive age brackets. |
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| A graph that reflects how many individuals of a cohort are still surviving, on average, at successive ages in their life span. |
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| TFR. Within a population, the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive years. |
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Definition
| No overall increase or decrease in population size during a specified interval. |
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| Idea that larger islands support more species than smaller ones at equivalent distances from sources of colonizer species. |
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Definition
| Coloration, form, patterning, or behavior that helps predators or prey blend with the surroundings and escape detection. |
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Definition
| The maximum number of individuals in a population (or species) that a given environment can sustain indefinitely. |
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| Array of species that has stabilized under prevailing habitat conditions. |
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| Idea that environmental factors often vary in their effects across a large region, so stable communities other than the climax stage may also persist in that region. |
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| Joint evolution of two closely interacting species by changes in the selection pressures operating between the two. |
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| Ecological interaction between two (or more) species in which one benefits directly and the other is affected little, if at all. |
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Definition
| All populations in a habitat. Also, a group of organisms with similar life-styles. |
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| competition interspecific |
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Definition
| Type of ecological interaction in which individuals of different species compete for a share of resources. |
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| competition intraspecific |
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Definition
| Type of ecological interaction in which individuals of the same population compete for a share of resources. |
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Definition
| Theory that two or more species that require identical resources cannot coexist indefinitely. |
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| Idea that only species adapted for long-distance dispersal can be potential colonists of islands far from their home range. |
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| Processes by which a community develops in sequence, from pioneer species to an end array of species that remain in equilibrium over some region. |
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| Endemic (native) species highly vulnerable to extinction. |
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| Species that left its home range and became established in a new community. |
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| An organism moves out of its home range and becomes established in a new community, as an exotic species. |
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| [L. habitare, to live in] Place where an organism or species lives; characterized by its physical and chemical features and its species. |
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| Living organism exploited by a parasite. A definitive host harbors the mature stage of a parasite's life cycle. One or more intermediate hosts harbor immature stages. |
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| Close resemblance in form, behavior, or both between one species (the mimic) and another (its model). Serves in deception, as when an orchid mimics a female insect and so attracts males that pollinate it. |
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