BI 110: Introduction to Ecology and Field Biology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the introductory principles, history, subdisciplines, ecological scales, ecosystem concepts, and scientific methodology presented in BI 110 Unit 1.

Ecology (Etymology)

Derived from the Greek word "oikos" (or "okios"), meaning "home" or "place to live", combined with "logy", meaning the study of.

Ecology (Ernst Haeckel, $1869$)

The economy of nature and the investigation of the total relations of an animal to its inorganic and organic environment, encompassing both friendly and unfriendly relations directly or indirectly.

Ecology (Odum, $1971$)

The study of the structure and function of nature.

Ecology (Krebs, $1985$)

The scientific study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

An Indigenous way of knowing grounded in a lifestyle of reciprocity (to care for and be cared for) that recognizes who was on the land first and understands the deep ecological processes of that land.

Two-Eyed Seeing

An integrative approach that combines Indigenous perspectives and Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Western scientific perspectives to enhance holistic understanding of ecology.

Plant Ecology

A discipline emerging in the early $1800\text{s}$ that studies plant communities, succession, and how similar types of plants adapt and grow in similar climates based on temperature, moisture, and soil conditions.

Animal Ecology

A discipline established in the early $1900\text{s}$ focusing on relationships between plants and animals, feeding networks, energy budgets, population dynamics, behavioural evolution, and sociality.

Physiological Ecology

The study of individual organism responses to environmental factors such as temperature, moisture, light, and nutrients, encompassing photosynthesis, physiological tolerances, and the law of the minimum.

Population Ecology

An ecological branch founded in the mid-$1800\text{s}$ (associated with Darwin, Malthus, Wallace, and Mendel) that examines population growth, regulation mechanisms, competition, natural selection, and genetics.

Community Ecology

A branch originating in the $1940\text{s}$ studying interspecific interactions (such as competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism) and how these relationships influence species distribution and abundance.

Ecosystem Ecology

A discipline developed in the $1950\text{s}$ focusing on energy flow, biogeochemistry, food webs, and nutrient cycling (such as carbon and nitrogen cycles) between producers and consumers.

Applied Ecology

The application of ecological theory and principles to solve real-world environmental problems, manage natural resources, and understand nature in relation to human endeavors.

Conservation Ecology

A highly interdisciplinary field combining ecology, biogeography, population genetics, sociology, and economics with the primary mission of maintaining biodiversity.

Restoration Ecology

The practice and study of returning disturbed lands and damaged ecosystems to their pre-disturbed state with a particular emphasis on recovering ecological functions.

Ecosystem Management

An applied management branch of landscape ecology that balances short-term economic yields with long-term ecological sustainability across large-scale ecosystem types.

Species

The smallest cluster of organisms that is diagnostically distinct from other clusters and within which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent.

Population

A group of individuals belonging to the same species that occur together in the same geographical space and at the same time.

Community

All populations of various interacting species (competitors, predators, prey, mutualists, parasites) that live together within a shared ecosystem.

Ecosystem

A biotic community and its abiotic physical environment functioning together as an interactive, integrated unit; it is dimensionless unless a spatial scale is defined.

Biotic Components

The living biological components of an ecosystem, including plants, animals, and micro-organisms.

Abiotic Components

The non-living chemical and physical elements of an ecosystem, including soil, aqueous or atmospheric media, hydrology, weather, climate, topographic relief, aspect, and nutrient regimes.

Ecosystem Structure

The physical spatial arrangement of biotic and non-living components, such as density, strata, dispersion patterns, species composition, downed woody material, rocks, and topography.

Ecosystem Function

Essential ecological processes that naturally operate within healthy ecosystems, classified into provisioning, regulating, and cultural services.

Biosphere

The global sum of all ecosystems on Earth, encompassing all living things and their planetary-scale connections.

Gaia Hypothesis

The theoretical concept proposing that all living organisms on Earth are interconnected and interact with their surroundings to maintain a self-regulating planetary system.

Grasshopper Effect (Global Distillation)

The atmospheric process whereby semi-volatile pollutants emitted in warm equatorial regions repeatedly evaporate, travel through the air, condense, and deposit ("jump") until settling permanently in cold polar regions.

Hypothesis

A clear, testable statement derived from a question that posits a predicted outcome based on theory or prior experience, capable of being supported or rejected through empirical data.

Inductive Hypothesizing

A method of scientific reasoning that proceeds from specific observations and observed patterns to formulate broad, general principles or theories.

Deductive Hypothesizing

A method of scientific reasoning that predicts specific outcomes or events starting from general principles, theories, or established frameworks.

Independent Variable

The treatment or manipulated factor in an experiment that is not altered by other measured parameters; traditionally plotted on the $X$-axis.

Dependent Variable

The responding variable monitored in an experiment that changes in reaction to shifts in the independent variable; traditionally plotted on the $Y$-axis.

Controlled Variable

An experimental condition or environmental factor deliberately held constant throughout an investigation to isolate the effects of the treatment variable.

Replication

The practice of gathering data from multiple independent experimental units or individuals rather than a single observation to account for uncontrollable individual variation.

Control (Experimental Design)

A baseline group of replicates that does not receive the manipulated experimental treatment, serving as a standard of comparison against treated groups.

Ecological Model

A simplified statistical, verbal, or physical representation of complex ecological processes used to quantify concepts and make predictions about specific environmental scenarios.