Studied by 8 peopleBiodiversity
The diversity of life forms in an environment.
Genetic diversity
A measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population.
Bottleneck Event
When a large population declines in number, the amount of genetic diversity carried by the surviving individuals is greatly reduced.
Species diversity
The number of species in a region or in a particular ecosystem.
Habitat diversity
The variety of habitats that exist in a given ecosystem.
Specialists
Species that only live under a narrow range of biotic or abiotic conditions
Generalists
Species that can live under a wide range of biotic or abiotic conditions.
Ecosystem diversity
The variety of ecosystems that exist in a given region.
Species richness
The number of different species in a given area.
Species evenness
The relative proportion of individuals within the different species in a given area.
Ecosystem services
The processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced.
Provision
A good produced by an ecosystem that humans can use directly.
Aquaculture
The farming of fish, shellfish, and seaweed.
Island biogeography
The study of how species are distributed and interacting on islands.
Species-area curve
A description of how the number of species on an island increases with the area of the island.
Ecological tolerance
The suite of abiotic conditions under which a species can survive, grow, and reproduce.
Realized niche
The range of abiotic and biotic conditions under which a species actually lives.
Geographic range
Areas of the world in which a species lives.
Mass extinction
A large number of species that went extinct over a relatively short period of time.
Periodic disruption
Occurring regularly, such as the cycles of day and night or the daily and nightly cycle of the moon’s effects on ocean tides.
Episodic disruption
Occurring somewhat regularly, such as cycles of high rain and low rain that occur every 5 to 10 years.
Random disruption
Occurring with no regular pattern such as volcanic eruptions or hurricanes.
Resistance
In an ecosystem, a measure of how much a disruption can affect flows of energy and matter.
Resilience
The rate at which an ecosystem returns to its original state after a disruption.
Intermediate disturbance hypothesis
The hypothesis that ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance will favor a higher level of diversity of species than those with high or low disturbance levels.
Evolution
A change in the genetic composition of a population over time.
Microevolution
Evolution at the population level.
Macroevolution
Evolution that gives rise to new species, genera, families, classes, or phyla.
Evolution by artificial selection
The process in which humans determine which individuals to breed, typically with a preconceived set of traits in mind.
Evolution by natural selection
The process in which the environment determines which individuals survive and reproduce.
Fitness
An individual’s ability to survive and reproduce.
Adaptation
A trait that improves an individual’s fitness.
Evolution by random processes
The processes that alter the genetic composition of a population over time, but the changes are not related to differences in fitness among individuals.
Allopatric speciation
The process of speciation that occurs with geographic isolation.
Sympatric speciation
The evolution of one species into two, without geographic isolation.
Genetically modified organism (GMO)
An organism produced by copying genes from a species with some desirable trait and inserting them into other species of plants, animals, or microbes.
Ecological succession
The predictable replacement of one group of species by another group of species over time.
Primary succession
Ecological succession occurring on surfaces with bare rock and no soil.
Pioneer species
In primary succession, species that can survive with little to no soil.
Secondary succession
The succession of plant life that occurs in areas that have been disturbed but have not lost their soil.
Climax community
Historically described as the final stage of succession.
Keystone species
A species that is not very abundant but has large effects on an ecological community.
Indicator species
A species that demonstrates a particular characteristic of an ecosystem.
Endemic species
Species that live in a very small area of the world and nowhere else, often in isolated locations such as the Hawaiian Islands.
Biodiversity hotspots
Isolated areas that are home to so many endemic species, that they contain a high proportion of all the species found on Earth.
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