APES vocab words

Altitude

Distance above sea level; also called elevation.

Aquatic

Relating to water.

Biome

A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms.

Biosphere

The part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and atmosphere.

Cellular respiration

Process that releases energy in the form of ATP by breaking down glucose; carried out by animals and plants; releases carbon into atmosphere in the form of CO2.

Chapparal

A biome also known as scrubland dominated by small shrubs and characterized by mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers.

Climate

The overall average conditions of the atmosphere such as temperature, precipitation, and winds, in an area.

Coevolution

Process by which two species change over time in response to changes in each other.

Commensalism

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected.

Community

All of the living things of different species interacting in an area.

Competition

A common demand by two or more organisms for a limited supply of a resource such as food, water, light, space, mates, or nesting sites.

Competitive exclusion

Idea that no two species can occupy the same exact niche in the same habitat at the same time; one will ultimately be better adapted to survive.

Conservation of energy

The principle stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change form.

Consumer

Heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by ingesting other organisms.

Decomposition

Process of breaking down organic matter into its constituent parts.

Desert

Biome with very low precipitation; temperatures are very hot during the day and can get cold at night. Found near 30 degrees north and south latitude.

Ecological niche

The role an organism plays in its environment and all of the abiotic & biotic interactions it has.

Ecosystem

All the living and nonliving things that interact in an area.

Energy pyramid

A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web- always a pyramid shape.

Estuary

The area where a freshwater stream or river merges with the ocean; salinity level is intermediate between fresh and marine.

Gross Primary Productivity

The total amount of solar energy that producers in an ecosystem capture via photosynthesis over a given amount of time.

Herbivore

A heterotroph that only eats producers.

Heterotroph

Organisms that cannot make their own food and must obtain nutrients from other organisms.

Interspecific competition

The struggle between organisms of two different species for a shared limited resource.

Intraspecific competition

The struggle between organisms of the same species for a shared limited resource.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship.

Net Primary Productivity

The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy lost through respiration; the rate of biomass accumulating in the ecosystem.

Omnivore

A heterotroph that eats both producers and consumers.

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship where one species benefits and the other is harmed.

Pelagic

Refers to the open areas of water in the ocean or very large lakes.

Permafrost

Ground that is permanently frozen.

Photosynthesis

Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy; captures atmospheric CO2 and fixes it in autotrophs as glucose.

Phytoplankton

Microscopic, free-floating, autotrophic organisms that function as producers in aquatic ecosystems.

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area.

Primary productivity

The rate at which energy is converted by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic autotrophs to organic substances.

Producer/Autotroph

Organisms that can make their own food either through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.

Realized niche

The actual range of factors a species uses and survives in when in competition with other species.

Reservoir

The large, long-term stores of a substance in the environment.

Resource partitioning

The differentiation of niches that enables similar species to coexist in a community.

Salinity

A measure of the amount of dissolved salts in water.

Savanna

Grassland biome that has more trees and bushes; found in Africa.

Scavenger

An organism that consumes already dead animals; includes vultures and hyenas.

Symbiosis

A relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other.

Taiga

Biome in which the winters are cold but summers are mild enough to allow the ground to thaw, dominated by evergreen trees. Also known as Boreal Forest or Coniferous Forest.

Temperate

Mild or moderate

Temperate grasslands

Biome dominated by open grasses with few trees and bushes. Temperatures vary with seasons and precipitation is relatively low. Deep, nutrient rich soils.

Temperate rainforest

Biome with moderate temperatures and high precipitation year-round.

Terrestrial

Relating to the land.

Transpiration

The loss of water from a plant through its leaves that enters the atmosphere as a gas.

Trophic level

A step in a food chain or food web.

Tropical rainforests

Biome with warm temperatures and a high precipitation; very high biodiversity and very nutrient-poor soil. Found near the equator.

Tundra

An extremely cold biome with little precipitation and permanently frozen ground found at the highest latitudes.

Turbidity

A measure of how clear water is.

Zooplankton

Microscopic heterotrophic organisms that swim or drift near the surface of aquatic environments and are primary consumers.

10% rule

Only 10% of the total energy produced at each trophic level is available to the next level. The amount of energy passed up to the levels of the food pyramid reduces as you go up.

atmosphere

the envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats only animals.

Carbon sinks/reservoirs

Anything that absorbs more carbon than it releases; examples: forests, soils, oceans and the atmosphere

Coral Reef

The most diverse marine biome on Earth, found in warm, shallow waters beyond the shoreline.

Freshwater wetlands

Aquatic biomes that are submerged or saturated by water for at least part of the year, but still support species of plants that can live in wet soils.

Latitude

Distance north or south of the equator

Longitude

Distance east or west of the prime meridian, measured in degrees

Mangrove swamps

A swamp that occurs along tropical and subtropical coasts, and contains salt-tolerant trees with roots submerged in water.

Temperate deciduous forest

A forest characterized by trees that shed their leaves in the fall. Range of the temperatures can be extreme. Vegetation changes with the seasons because of the temperature.

Benthic

bottom of an aquatic ecosystem; consists of sand and sediment and supports its own community of organisms

Littoral

a shallow zone in a freshwater habitat where light reaches the bottom and nurtures plants

Limnetic

In a lake, the well-lit, open surface waters farther from shore.

Profundal

zone in a freshwater habitat that is below the limits of effective light penetration

Trophic level

Each step in a food chain or food web