APES Review

Ecosystem

Interaction of living and nonliving things in a specific region.

Habitat

The specific environmental conditions that a given species needs to survive.

Symbiosis

Organisms living in close proximity to each other.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship where both species benefit from the interactions.

Biome

An area that shares a consistent yearly average temperature and precipitation patterns.

Aquatic Biomes

Biomes related to water environments, influenced by salinity, flow, and depth.

Carbon Cycle

The cycle in which carbon sources return carbon to the atmosphere, while sinks remove carbon from it.

Nitrogen Fixation

The process of converting biologically unavailable nitrogen gas into biological forms like ammonia or nitrate.

Photosynthesis

The process through which plants remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in plant tissue.

Primary Productivity

The rate at which plants in an area convert sunlight into glucose or plant tissue.

K-selected Species

Species that live in populations at or near carrying capacity, producing few offspring and requiring parental care.

R-selected Species

Species that produce a high number of offspring with low parental care, advantageous when food resources are abundant.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a species that an ecosystem can support.

Ecosystem Services

Things natural ecosystems do that have financial service to humans.

Ecological Succession

The process of change in species structure in an ecological community over time.

Keystone Species

A species so important to an ecosystem that its removal causes significant instability.

Survivorship Curves

Graphs that show the percentage of individuals of a species that survive at various ages.

Demographic Transition

The theory that countries undergo industrialization affecting birth and death rates.

Trophic Levels

The levels of the food chain, including producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Density Dependent Factors

Limiting factors that have a greater effect at higher population densities.

Density Independent Factors

Factors that limit population growth regardless of the density.

Insolation

The amount of solar radiation an area receives.

Watershed

An area of land that drains into a central body of water.

El Niño

A climate pattern resulting from weakened trade winds that leads to warmer ocean temperatures.

La Niña

A climate pattern resulting from stronger than normal trade winds that leads to cooler ocean temperatures.