Ecology and Environmental Biology Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards generated from ecology and environmental biology lecture notes.

Resource Partitioning

When two competing species use different resources or the same resource in a different way to reduce competition.

Competitive Exclusion Principle

2 species cannot occupy the same niche indefinitely because one will eventually outcompete the other.

Parasite

An organism, usually smaller, harmful, that lives on or in a host and feeds off it.

Pathogen

An organism or agent that causes disease.

Herbivory

A type of predation in which an animal eats plants or algae.

Photosynthesis

The process plants use to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen.

Primary Productivity

The rate at which producers create biomass using energy from sunlight or chemicals.

Assimilation

The process by which plants absorb nutrients, such as nitrogen, and incorporate them into their tissues.

Limiting Nutrient

A nutrient that is in short supply and limits growth of organisms in an ecosystem.

Carbon Sink

A natural or human-made system that absorbs and stores more carbon than it releases.

Intraspecific Competition

Competition between individuals of the same species.

Interspecific Competition

Competition between different species.

Endemic Species

A species that naturally lives in a specific geographic area.

Leaching

The removal of dissolved substances, such as nutrients or pollutants, through soil by water.