ENVS 200: Midterm Review (Key Terms)

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142 Terms

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Natural Selection
Process by which organisms better adapted to the environment tend to survive and produce more offspring than others
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Evolution
Change overtime, in the heritable characteristics of a population of species
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Heritable Variation
Generic differences between organisms that allow for e.g. different hair colour, height
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Fitness
Describes the success of indivudals in the process of natural selection
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Common Garden
Experiment comparing populations under identical environmental conditions
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Hybridization
Production of offspring sharing the characteristics of two parents
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Reciprocal Transplant
Experiment introducing organisms from each of two environments into the other
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Industrial Melanism
Black or blackish forms of species of moths and other organism have come to dominate populations in industrial areas
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Coevolve
Two things influence each other in the process of development or evolution
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Species
A group of organisms that, if they could (even potentially), breed to make viable and fertile offspring
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Speciation
Group within a species separates from other members of its species and develops its own unique characteristics
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Pre-Zygotic Isolation
Prevents the fertilization of eggs
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Post-Zygotic Isolation
Prevents the formation of fertile offspring
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Allopatric Speciation
Population is divided by something (could be quick or long-term), because there is a barrier, they can only breed internally within their groups, because of selection pressures and random genetic drift, they become separated and if they ever join back together, there will not be breeding between the species
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Sympatric Speciation
Occurs when there are no physical barriers preventing any members of a species from mating with another and all members are in close proximity to one another
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Endemic
Unique to a geographic location
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Conditions
Physicochemical features of the environment (e.g. temperature, humidity, pH, salinity)
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Resources
Things consumed by organisms in the course of their growth and reproduction
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Response Curve
Physiological responses in organisms
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Thermophile
Type of organism that thrives at relatively high temperatures (above 60 degrees Celsius)
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Chilling Injury
At body temperatures a few degrees above zero degrees Celsius, organisms may be forced into extended periods of inactivity and the cell membranes of sensitive species may begin to break down
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Photoperiod
Most widely used external signal – the length of the period of of daylight within the daily cycle
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Diapause
Dormant phase in which development is suspended and metabolic activity is massively reduced
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Acclimatization
Conditions may trigger an altered response to the same or even more extreme conditions
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Ectotherm
Rely on external sources of heat to determine the pace of their metabolism (includes invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and most fish)
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Endotherm
Regulate body temperature by producing heat within their body (birds and mammals)
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Acidophile
Microbial specialists that thrive in environments that are highly acidic
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Photoinhibition
Rate of fixation of carbon decreases with increasing radiation intensity
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Avoider
Plants that avoid the problems
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Tolerator
Produces long-lived leaves that transpire slowly
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Deciduous
Tree species that lose all leaves for at least 1 and usually 2-4 months or more each year
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CAM
Plants that open stomata at night and absorb carbon dioxide and fix it as malic acid
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Autotroph
AKA Primary Producers; Major resources are photosynthetic radiation, water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide
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Heterotroph
Unpack the organic packages, metabolize, and excrete same of the contents (mostly as inorganic nutrients, carbon dioxide and water)
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Chemo-Autotrophic
Autotrophs which get their energy by oxidising the reduced energy found in inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfides
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Decomposer
Feed on already dead plants and animals
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Parasite
Feed on one or a very few host plants or animals while they are alive but do not usually kill their hosts, at least not immediately
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Predator
Eat many prey organisms, typically killing them
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Grazer
Consume parts of many prey organisms, but do not (usually) their prey, at least not immediately
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Generalist
Animals that feed on a wide variety of foods
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Specialist
Animals that may focus on particular parts of their prey but range over a number of species
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Mutualistic
Relationship that is beneficial to both parties
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Defenses
Any feature of an organism that increases the energy spent by a consumer in discovering or handling
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Crypsis
Ability of an organism to conceal itself from a predator by having a colour, pattern, and shape that allows it to blend into the surrounding environment
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Aposematism
Use of warning coloration to inform potential predators that an animal is poisonous, venomous, or otherwise dangerous
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Mimics
One species resembles another that has easily recognizable characteristics and as a result deceives a potential predator
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Global Conveyor Belt
Conveyor belt of ocean circulation is critical to redistributing heat across the Earth and mitigating human-driven global climate change
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Biome
Characteristic regions with particular types of vegetation
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Primary Production
Total amount of photosynthesis per area for a defined length of time
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Epiphyte
Plants that grown on other plants
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Specices Richness
Describes the number of species
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Savanna
Characteristically consists of grassland with scattered small tress, but extrusive areas have no trees
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Grassland/Praire
Natural vegetation over large areas in every continent except Antarctica
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Desert
In most extreme form, too arid to bear any vegetation
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Temperate Forest
Variety of types of vegetation
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Succession
Process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over time
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Boreal Forest/Taiga
Coniferous and occur in regions where the short growing season and the polar cold of winter limit the vegetation and its associated fauna
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Permafrost
Long-frozen soil below the surface
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Tundra
North of the boreal forest, polar air masses and cold temperatures dominate even in summer
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Watershed
Water entering a stream comes from its watershed; The land area where all the water draining from it comes to the steam through groundwater flows, surface runoff or both
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Riparian
Species adapted to grow in the narrow strip along the stream where water is plentiful
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Floodplain
Streams and rivers (at times of high discharge), flow onto the nearby land, termed the floodplain
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Phytoplankton
Dominant primary producers in deep lakes
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Zooplankton
Graze phytoplankton
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Thermocline
Transitional zone below the surface layer where temperature rapidly declines
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Swamp
Places where trees dominate the wetland
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Marsh/Fen
Places where grasses and/or sedges dominate the wetland
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Bog
Places where mosses of the genus Sphagnum dominate the wetland (usually very acidic)
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Population
Functioning groups of individual organisms of the same species in a defined location
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Modular/Module
Repeated production, usually rooted or fixed
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Zygote
Eukaryotic cell formed by fertilization event between two gamates
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Genet
Genetic individual that develops from the zygote and that produces ramets vegetatively
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Annual
Species that complete a whole generation from seed to adult through to seeds again within a year
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Perennial
Species that live for several or many years and may not reproduce in tier early years
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Biennial
Plants that require two years to complete their life cycle
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Iteroparous
Multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime
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Semelparaous
Characterized by a single reproductive episode before death
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Cohort
All individuals born within a particular period
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Cohort Life Table
Table that records the survivorship of the members of the cohort overtime
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Static Life Table
Describes the numbers of survivors of different ages
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Age-Specific Fecundity Schedule
Fecundity of individuals also changes with their age, need to know how much individuals of different ages contribute to births in the population as a whole
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Age Structure
Age classes in a population
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Type I Survivorship Curve
Mortality is concentrated toward the end of the maximum life span
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Type II Survivorship Curve
Straight line signifying a constant mortality rate from birth to maximum age, describes
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Type III Survivorship Curve
Extensive early mortality, but high rate of subsequent survival
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Dispersal
Describes the way individuals spread away from each other
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Migration
Refers to the mass directional movement of large numbers of a species from one location to another
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Inbreeding
Mating of close relatives in spieices that are normally outbreeding
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Interspecific Competition
Individuals of one species suffer a reduction in fecundity, survivorship, or growth as a result of either exploitation of resources or interference by individuals from another species
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Fundamental Niche
Combination of conditions and resources that allow that species to exist, grow, and reproduce when considered in isolation from any other species that might be harmful to its existence
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Realized Niche
Combination of conditions and resources that allow it to exist, grow, and reproduce in the presence of specified other species that might be harmful to its existence
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Niche Differentiation
Differentiation that allows competitors to coexist
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Differential Resource Utilization
Species compete but coexist by utilizing slightly different resources in slightly different ways
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Competitive Exclusion Principle
Two species can't coexist if they occupy exactly the same niche
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Ghost of Competition Past
Coexisting species with an apparent potential to compete, will exhibit differences in behavior, physiology, or morphology that ensure that they compete little to not at all
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Character Displacement
Morphological response to competition from another species
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Ecological Release
Response to the absence of ecological effects of other species
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Niche Complemntarity
Niche differentiation in a community of species involes several niche dimensions
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Host
Prey consumed by parasites
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Parasitoid
Flies and wasps whose larvae consume their insect larva host from within