Unit 8 Vocab Test

Behavioral Mechanisms

refers to the actions or reactions of an organism in response to stimuli from its environment.

Communication in organisms

refers to the transfer of information from one organism to another through signals or behaviors.

Cooperative Behavior

refers to actions taken by organisms that benefit others in their group, often at a cost to themselves. This behavior is common in social species and contributes to the survival of the group as a whole.

Diurnal activity

refers to the behavior of animals that are active during the day and rest or sleep at night.

Environmental Sensing

the process by which organisms perceive and respond to certain changes in their environment.

Fight-or-Flight Response

a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event or threat to survival. It prepares an organism for fighting off harm or fleeing from danger.

Innate Behaviors

Behaviors that occur naturally without any need for learning. They are instinctual and present at birth.

Kinesis

a non-directional response where an organism's speed or activity level changes due to changes in their environment but not necessarily toward or away from any specific stimuli.

Learned behaviors

actions or behaviors that animals acquire through experience or observing others within their environment.

Mutualistic Relationships

A relationship is one where both organisms involved benefit from their interaction with each other.

Nocturnal activity

refers to the behavior of animals that are active during the night and sleep during the day.

Photoperiodism

the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of day or night. It triggers flowering, hibernation, migration and other behaviors.

Phototropism

the growth or movement of a plant in response to light direction.

Physiological Mechanisms

refer to how living organisms' bodies function internally at both physical and chemical levels in response to their environments.

Predator Warnings

signals given by animals to alert others of potential threats from predators.

Taxis

a directed movement towards or away from a stimulus such as light (phototaxis), heat (thermotaxis), or gravity (geotaxis).

Autotrophs

organisms that can produce their own food from the substances available in their surroundings using light (photosynthesis) or chemical energy (chemosynthesis).

Carnivores

animals that primarily eat other animals. They have adaptations such as sharp teeth and claws to help them catch and kill their prey.

Dormancy

a period in an organism's life cycle when growth, development, and physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy.

Ectotherms

organisms that rely on external sources of body heat.

Endotherms

animals that primarily depend on internal heat generated by metabolic processes for body temperature regulation.

Herbivorers

animals that eat plants or plant-based products. They have specific adaptations that allow them to efficiently process plant matter as their primary food source.

Heterotrophs

organisms that cannot manufacture their own food and instead rely on consuming other organisms—plant or animal—for energy.

Hibernation

is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in endotherms (warm-blooded animals) that is characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate.

K-selected strategy

A reproductive strategy characterized by long life spans, fewer offspring, high parental care and investment in offspring. These species are often larger and have longer developmental periods.

Metabolic rate

the speed at which an organism's body uses energy or burns calories.

Primary producers

organisms that produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. They form the base of the food chain by converting energy from the sun or chemicals into usable nutrients.

R-selected strategy

Strategy that refers to species that produce many offspring but provide little parental care.

Thermoregulation

an organism’s ability to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when surrounding temperatures are very different.

Trophic levels

These are hierarchical levels in an ecosystem comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

Abiotic factors

are non-living parts of an environment that can affect living organisms and functioning ecosystems. They include sunlight, temperature, wind patterns etc.

Biotic factors

all living things or materials from living things affecting an ecosystem. They include plants, animals, bacteria, fungi etc.

Birth rate

the number of live births per 1,000 individuals in a population in a year.

Carrying capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support indefinitely under stable conditions.

Community ecology

the study of how groups of different species interact with each other and their environment within a defined area.

Competition

refers to the struggle between organisms for limited resources such as food, water, territory or mates.

Conservation

refers to the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and wildlife.

Death Rate

the number of deaths per 1,000 individuals in a population in a year.

Density

refers to the number of individuals per unit area or volume.

Distribution

refers to how individuals within a population are spaced within their region. This could be random, uniform/regularly spaced, or clumped/aggregated distribution based on resource availability and interactions between organisms.

Exponential Growth

describes when something increases rapidly due to constant proportionality - meaning it grows more and more quickly as it gets larger.

Habitat

the natural environment where an organism lives. It includes all aspects such as climate, food sources, predators, and other species interactions.

Invasive species

a non-native organism that causes harm to the ecosystem into which it has been introduced.

Limiting factors

environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem.

Logistic growth

refers to the growth pattern where expansion is rapid initially due to abundant resources, but slows down as resources become limited leading to stabilization around carrying capacity.

Management efforts

refer to the strategies and actions taken to manage natural resources and ecosystems, often with the goal of sustainability and conservation.

Mutualism

a type of symbiotic relationship where both organisms involved benefit from each other.

Population

refers to a group of individuals of the same species living in a specific geographical area and capable of interbreeding.

Population density

refers to the number of individuals per unit area or volume in an ecological community. It's an important concept in ecology because it influences how organisms interact with each other and their environment.

Population ecology

the study of how populations — groups of individuals of the same species living in a specific area — interact with their environment and change over time.

Predation

 an interaction where one organism (the predator) kills another (the prey) for food.

Predation pressure

refers to the impact predators have on their prey's population size and behavior within an ecosystem.

Density-Dependent factors

elements that affect the population growth rate depending on how dense the population is. These can include competition, predation, disease and food availability.

Density-Independent factors

These are environmental factors that affect a population's size regardless of its density. They include natural disasters, climate, and human activities.

Equilibrium Population size

the number of individuals in a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely without any significant changes in availability of resources.

Logistic Growth Model

describes how population growth may start slowly, then increase rapidly until reaching carrying capacity due to environmental resistance such as limited resources.

Migration

refers to the movement and exchange of genes from one population to another, which can affect the genetic diversity of the populations.

Overpopulation

refers to a situation where the number of organisms in a particular habitat exceeds the carrying capacity, leading to resource depletion and environmental degradation.

Weather

refers to short-term atmospheric conditions while

Climate

the weather pattern over a long period (30 years or more).

Community

refers to all the populations that live and interact within an area at a given time.

Ecological niche

refers to the role a species plays in its ecosystem, including its interactions with other organisms and its environment.

Niche partitioning

involves dividing up a niche to avoid competition for resources. It allows multiple species to coexist in a single ecosystem by reducing direct competition for resources.

Parasitism

a type of symbiotic relationship between two organisms where one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (the host). The parasite derives nutrients from the host, often causing harm in the process.

Simpson’s Diversity Index

a measure used by ecologists to quantify biodiversity in an area. It takes into account both richness (number) and evenness (distribution) among species present in an area.

Species Composition

refers to the identity of all the different organisms that make up a community.

Species Diversity

refers to the variety of different species within a specific area or ecosystem.

Terrestrial Environment

refers to land environments on Earth – including forests, grasslands, deserts, coastal areas etc., where organisms live and interact with each other and their surroundings.

Trophic cascades

ecological phenomena triggered by changes in top predators' population size that cause ripple effects down through lower levels of the food chain.

Keystone Species

an organism that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in the ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.