Biology Final terms

Asexual Reproduction

 a mode of reproduction in which a new offspring is produced by a single parent

bacterial morphology

the external appearance of bacterial cells including shape, arrangement, and size

exponential growth

a pattern of data that shows greater increases with passing time, creating the curve of an exponential function

exponential decay

a process in which a quantity decreases over time, with the rate of decrease becoming proportionally smaller as the quantity gets smaller

natural selection

Natural selection is the process by which certain traits become more or less common in a population over time, based on their impact on an organism's ability to survive and reproduce.

disruptive selection

disruptive selection

Disruptive selection favors extreme values of a trait over intermediate values, forming two distinct phenotypic groups. It can happen when two or more distinct phenotypes are both advantageous, leading to speciation as the groups become reproductively isolated.

directional selection

Directional selection favors traits that increase survival and reproduction in a specific environment. This leads to a change in the frequency of a trait in a population over time.

stabilizing selection

Stabilizing selection prefers average individuals in a stable environment. Traits suitable for survival are already in the population, so those with different traits are less likely to survive and reproduce. This leads to less genetic variation.

individual variation

the uniqueness and variety among people's traits and behavioral tendencies

inheritance

the passing of genetic information from parent to child through the genes in sperm and egg cells

enviromental change

a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes

differential reproductive success

A situation in which some individuals leave more offspring in the next generation than do others, often due to traits that confer advantages in survival and/or reproduction

adaptation

any heritable trait that helps an organism, such as a plant or animal, survive and reproduce in its environment

trait

a specific characteristic of an individual

competitive advantage

who survives and gets to pass on their genes

survive and reproduce

natural selection

behavioral trait

those actions that are observed in organisms throughout their species

physical trait

physical attributes of an organism such as hair color, leaf shape, size

genetic trait

the specific combination of alleles for a gene is known as the genotype of the organism

species

a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding

common ancestor

Ancestral organism shared by two or more descendent lineages

homologous structure

similar physical features in organisms that share a common ancestor, but the features serve completely different functions (ex. limbs of humans, bats, whales, and cats)

analogous structure

features of different species that are similar in function but not necessarily in structure and which do not derive from a common ancestral feature (ex. wings of birds + butterflies)

convergent evolution

occurs when two organisms that lack a recent common ancestor end up more and more alike as they adapt to a similar ecological niche

divergent evolution

what occurs when two groups of the same species evolve different traits within those groups in order to accommodate for differing environmental and social pressures

sympatric speciation

the splitting of an ancestral species into two or more reproductively isolated groups without geographical isolation of those groups

allopatric speciation

occurs when a species separates into two separate groups which are isolated from one another. A physical barrier, such as a mountain range or a waterway, makes it impossible for them to breed with one another

sun energy

radiant light and heat from the Sun

chlorophyll

a green pigment, present in all green plants and in cyanobacteria, responsible for the absorption of light to provide energy for photosynthesis

light reactions

 capture energy from sunlight, which they change to chemical energy that is stored in molecules of NADPH and ATP. The light reactions also release oxygen gas

chloroplast

a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells

thylakoid

each of a number of flattened sacs inside a chloroplast, bounded by pigmented membranes on which the light reactions of photosynthesis take place

calvin cycle

 **the term used for the reactions of photosynthesis that use the energy stored by the light-dependent reactions to form glucose and other carbohydrate molecules**

carbon dioxide

an important heat-trapping gas, or greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and from natural processes like volcanic eruptions

oxygen

colourless, odourless, tasteless gas essential to living organisms, being taken up by animals, which convert it to carbon dioxide; plants, in turn, utilize carbon dioxide as a source of carbon and return the oxygen to the atmosphere

glucose

the main sugar found in your blood, body’s main source of energy

water

 a simple molecule composed of two small, positively charged hydrogen atoms and one large negatively charged oxygen atom

ATP energy

source of energy for use and storage at the cellular level. The structure of ATP is a nucleoside triphosphate, consisting of a nitrogenous base (adenine), a ribose sugar, and three serially bonded phosphate groups

mitochondria

an organelle found in large numbers in most cells, in which the biochemical processes of respiration and energy production occur

glycolysis

Glycolysis is the process in which glucose is broken down to produce energy. It produces two molecules of pyruvate, ATP, NADH and water

Krebs Cycle

After glycolysis breaks glucose into smaller 3-carbon molecules, the Krebs cycle transfers the energy from these molecules to electron carriers, which will be used in the electron transport chain to produce ATP

electron transport chain

The primary function of the electron transport chain is to generate an electrochemical gradient. It drives the synthesis of ATP during cellular respiration and photosynthesis in mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively. It is used in cellular respiration.

biodiversity

the variety of all living things and their interactions

taxonomy

the science of naming, describing and classifying organisms

kingdom

 kingdom is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain

phylum

a major group of animals or in some classifications plants sharing one or more fundamental characteristics