APES Study Guide: Ecosystems and Biodiversity

These flashcards cover key vocabulary terms and concepts related to ecosystems and biodiversity necessary for understanding the AP Environmental Science curriculum.

Evolution

Cumulative genetic changes that occur over time in a population of organisms.

Natural Selection

The process proposed by Charles Darwin where traits favorable for survival are passed down through generations.

High Reproductive Capacity

A condition of evolution stating that each species produces more offspring than will survive to maturity.

Heritable Variation

Differences among individuals in a population that can be passed down through generations.

Limits on Population Growth

Factors such as resources, predators, and disease that restrict population size.

Differential Reproductive Success

The concept that individuals with advantageous traits reproduce more successfully than others.

Modern Synthesis

The integration of knowledge from genetics, classification, fossils, developmental biology, and ecology.

Mutation

Changes in the nucleotide base sequence of a gene, providing genetic variability.

Prokaryotes

Single-celled organisms that lack a membrane-bound nucleus, divided into two domains: archaea and bacteria.

Eukaryotes

Organisms made up of cells with membrane-bound nuclei, including plants, animals, fungi, and protists.

Intrinsic Rate of Increase (r)

The potential growth rate of a population under ideal conditions, factors include age at reproduction and number of offspring.

Carrying Capacity (K)

The maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely.

Density Dependent Factors

Factors affecting population size based on the population's density, such as predation and disease.

Density Independent Factors

Typically abiotic factors that reduce population size regardless of density, like climate or weather events.

Ecological Niche

The role and position a species has in its environment, including all interactions with biotic and abiotic factors.

Symbiosis

An intimate relationship between members of different species, which can be mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic.

Ecosystem Services

Benefits provided by ecosystems such as clean air and water, fertile soils, and food.

Primary Succession

The development of a community in an area with no soil, starting from bare rock.

Secondary Succession

The recovery of a community after a disturbance that leaves soil intact.

Food Chain

A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.

Food Web

A complex network of feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem.

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

The total rate at which photosynthetic energy is captured by plants.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

The rate of energy storage by photosynthesis after accounting for respiration losses.

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants and some other organisms convert light energy into chemical energy.

Cellular Respiration

The process of breaking down glucose with oxygen to produce energy for cellular processes.

Carbon Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is cycled through the atmosphere, land, ocean, and organisms.

Nitrogen Cycle

The series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms.