Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions in biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, biogeography, energy flow, and scientific principles based on lecture materials.

Ecological Footprint

The amount of land and water resources required to support a population's consumption and handle its waste.

Biocapacity

The capacity of an area to provide resources (fuel, food, livestock) to meet human needs.

Provisioning Services

Ecosystem services consisting of resources consumed directly, such as food, water, and timber.

Regulating Services

Ecosystem services consisting of processes that maintain ecosystem stability, such as crop pollination, disease control, and flood regulation.

Supporting Services

Ecosystem services consisting of basic processes necessary for other services, such as soil formation and nutrient cycles.

Cultural Services

Ecosystem services providing non-material, spiritual, or aesthetic benefits, such as spiritual value and recreational enjoyment.

Drama of the Commons

The challenge of organizing shared resources, requiring regulation, true cooperation, and sustainability to prevent resource exhaustion from individual overconsumption.

Species Richness

The total number of different species in a given area.

Evenness

How close in numbers each species in an environment is, referring to relative abundance.

Shannon-Wiener Index ($H'$)

A calculation used to measure diversity that accounts for both species richness and evenness, where a higher $H'$ value indicates a more diverse and balanced site.

Alpha Diversity

The species diversity within a particular site or ecosystem.

Beta Diversity

The change in species composition between different areas or habitats.

Gamma Diversity

The total species diversity across an entire region.

Quadrats

Small, defined areas used to sample different parts of a habitat, often more effective for finding rare species than single-area sampling.

Transects

Lines across a habitat used to record the occurrence of species.

Rarefaction Plots

Tools (also known as species-accumulation curves) used to determine if sampling effort is sufficient, indicated when the curve levels off.

Hadley Cells

Atmospheric circulation patterns where warm air rises at the equator, absorbs moisture, and then cools and sinks, creating distinct air circulation and rainfall patterns that support tropical rainforests.

Buffon's Law

A biogeographical principle stating that different regions with similar climates often harbor different sets of organisms (biota).

Endemic Species

Species that live in only one specific geographic location, such as the Cape Fear shiner in North Carolina.

Gross Primary Production (GPP)

The total amount of energy captured by plants through photosynthesis.

Respiration ($R_a$)

The energy plants use to stay alive and grow.

Net Primary Production (NPP)

The energy remaining after respiration ($\text{NPP} = \text{GPP} - R_a$), which is available for heterotrophs to consume.

Net Ecosystem Production (NEP)

The total carbon left after accounting for the respiration of all organisms in the ecosystem, including plants, animals, and microbes.

Dilution Effect

The ecological phenomenon where high animal diversity reduces the prevalence of disease (such as Lyme disease in ticks) due to non-effective host species.

Dilution Hosts

Animals that host ticks but do not pass the disease-causing bacteria effectively.

Habitat Fragmentation

The breaking up of habitats, which decreases biodiversity and favors resilient species like white-footed mice that efficiently carry disease.

Inductive Reasoning

A form of logical thinking that uses specific observations to reach a general conclusion.

Deductive Reasoning

A form of logical thinking that uses a general law or idea to predict specific results.

Levels of Biological Organization

The hierarchy of biological life: Organelles $\rightarrow$ Cells $\rightarrow$ Tissues $\rightarrow$ Organs and Organ Systems $\rightarrow$ Organisms $\rightarrow$ Populations $\rightarrow$ Communities $\rightarrow$ Ecosystems $\rightarrow$ The Biosphere.