Ecology: The Economy of Nature Ch.1

Ecology

The scientific study of the ABUNDANCE and DISTRIBUTION of organisms in relation to other organisms and environmental conditions.

Ecological systems

biological entities that have both their own internal processes and yet interact with their external surroundings

Ecosytem

One or more communities of living organisms interacting with their nonliving physical and chemical environment (abiotic environments)

Individual

a living being, the most fundamental unit of ecology

Species (Historical)

Historically defined as a group of organisms that naturally interbreed with each other and produce fertile offspring.

Species (Current)

Research demonstrates that no single definition can be applied to all organisms

Population

Individuals of the same species living in a particular area

Community

All populations of species living together in a particular area

Biosphere

All the ecosystems on Earth

Individual Approach

An Approach to ecology that emphasizes the way in which an individuals morphology, physiology, and behavior enable it to survive in its environment

Taxonomy

Grouping species that share common ancestry

Adaptations

a characteristic of an organism that makes it well suited to its environment

Population Approach

An Approach to ecology that emphasizes variation over time and space in the number of individuals, the density of individuals, and the composition of individuals

Community Approach

An Approach to ecology that emphasizes the diversity and relative abundances of different kinds of organisms living together in the same place.

Ecosystem Approach

An Approach to ecology that emphasizes the storage and transfer of energy and matter, including various chemical elements essential to life.

Biosphere Approach

An Approach to ecology concerned with the largest scale in the hierarchy of ecological systems, including movements of air and water--and the energy and chemical elements they contain-- over Earth's surface.

Law of conservation of matter

Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form

First law of thermodynamics (law of conservation of energy)

Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form

Dynamic steady state

When the gains and losses of ecological systems are in balance

Phenotype

An attribute of an organism, such as its behavior, morphology, physiology

Genotype

The set of genes an organism carries

Evolution

Change in the genetic composition of a population over time

Natural Selection

Change in the frequency of genes in a population through differential survival and reproduction of individuals that possess certain phenotypes

Fitness

The survival and reproduction of an individual

Predator

An organism that kills and partially or entirely consumes another individual

Parasite

An organism that lives in or on another organism, but rarely kills it

Parasitoid

An organism that lives within and consumes the tissues of a living host, eventually killing the host.

Herbivore

An organism that consumes producers such as plants and algae

Competition

An interaction with negative effects between two species that depend on the same limiting resource to survive, grow, reproduce

Detritivores

Break down dead organic matter into smaller particles called detritus

Decomposers

Break down detritus into simpler elements that can be recycled

Scavenger

An organism that consumes dead animals

Habitat

The place, or physical setting, in which an organism lives

Niche

The range of abiotic and biotic conditions that an organism can tolerate

Environmentalism

Usually focuses on human influenced aspects of nature

Hypothesis

An idea that potentially explains a repeated observation

Prediction

A logical consequence of a hypothesis

Manipulative experiment

A process by which a hypothesis is tested by altering a factor that is hypothesized to be an underlying cause of the phenomenon

Manipulation or treatment

The factor that we want to vary in an experiment

Control

A manipulation that includes all aspects of an experiment except the factor of intrest

Randomization

An aspect of experiment design in which every experimental unit has an equal chance of being assigned to a particular manipulation

Natural experiment

An Approach to hypothesis testing that relies on natural variation in the environment

Greenhouse Gases

Compounds in the atmosphere that absorb the infrared heat energy emitted by earth and then emit some of the energy back toward earth

Sample Variance

A measurement that indicates the spread of the data around the mean of a population when only a sample of the population has been measured

Observations or Data

Information, including measurements, that is collected from organisms or the environment

Variance of the mean

A measurement that indicates the spread of the data around the mean of a population when every member of the population has been measured