Ecology, Conservation, and Population Dynamics

Vocabulary flashcards covering conservation strategies, limiting factors, biotic factors, negative human actions, and environmental pressures on populations.

Conservation

The practice of protecting natural resources and environments with key goals of protecting nature's balance, preserving shelter for wildlife, maintaining biodiversity, restoring abiotic balance, and maintaining biotic balance.

Habitat Protection

A conservation strategy to preserve shelter for wildlife and maintain biodiversity within ecosystems.

Pollution Control

A conservation strategy aimed at improving water quality and restoring abiotic balance.

Sustainable Hunting and Fishing

Conservation practices designed to maintain biotic balance by preventing overharvesting of animal and aquatic populations.

Limiting Factors

Environmental factors that determine how many individuals can survive and reproduce, control population size and health, maintain balance in ecosystems, and cause changes in population dynamics.

Population Dynamics

The study of how populations grow, stabilize, or decline based on available resources.

Biotic Factors

All living things that affect an organism's survival, including food availability, predators, competition for mates, disease and parasites, and living interactions.

Human Actions Affecting Ecosystems

Human activities that disrupt natural environments, including pollution, deforestation, excessive water use, destruction of habitats, improper waste disposal, overfishing, and unsustainable land use.

Deforestation

A destructive human action involving the clearing or removal of forest cover and natural habitats.

Overfishing

The removal of fish species from water bodies at a rate faster than they can naturally replenish.

Population Under Pressure

The state of a population experiencing environmental stresses such as decreased food, water, shelter, or mates, leading to population decline or local extinction.

Decrease in Food Availability

A population stressor often caused by drought, leading to starvation, malnutrition, increased competition, and a decrease in population.

Decrease in Water Availability

A population stressor caused by conditions like a dried waterhole, resulting in dehydration, increased travel risks, migration, and population decline.

Decrease in Shelter Availability

A population stressor caused by habitat loss, resulting in increased predation, vulnerability to weather, lower birth rates, and population shrinkage.

Allee Effect

A phenomenon triggered by a decrease in mate availability, resulting in difficulty finding mates, low reproductive success, reduced genetic diversity, and a population spiraling toward local extinction.