Biodiversity and Ecosystems Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to biodiversity, ecosystem services, island biogeography, ecological tolerance, and ecological succession based on lecture notes.

Biodiversity

The diversity of life forms in an ecosystem, measured on genetic, species, and habitat levels.

Genetic diversity

A measure of how different the genomes are of the individuals within a population of a given species.

Species diversity

The number of different species in an ecosystem and the balance or evenness of the population sizes of all species.

Ecosystem diversity

The number of different habitats available in a given area.

Species richness

The total number of different species found in an ecosystem.

Evenness

A measure of how all individual organisms in an ecosystem are balanced between the different species.

Population bottleneck

An environmental disturbance that drastically reduces population size and kills organisms regardless of their genome, leading to a loss of genetic diversity.

Inbreeding depression

Occurs when organisms mate with closely related family members, leading to a higher chance of offspring having harmful genetic mutations.

Ecosystem resilience

The ability of an ecosystem to return to its original conditions after a major disturbance.

Ecosystem services

Goods and services provided by natural ecosystems that are beneficial to humans.

Island biogeography

The study of the ecological relationships and distribution of organisms on islands and their community structures.

Ecological tolerance

The range of conditions, such as temperature, salinity, or sunlight, that an organism can endure before injury or death results.

Natural disturbances

A natural event that disrupts the structure and/or function of an ecosystem.

Adaptation

A new trait that increases an organism's fitness, or ability to survive and reproduce.

Ecological succession

A series of predictable stages of growth that an ecosystem goes through, such as primary and secondary succession.