APES MIDTERM

Tragedy of the Commons

The idea that a resource will deplete if multiple parties exclusively rely on that resource.

Sustainability

Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources.

Ecological Footprint

A measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land.

Ecosystem services

The processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced.

Greenhouse gasses

Gases in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near the surface.

Energy

The ability to do work or transfer heat.

Energy quality

The ease with which an energy source can be used for work.

First law of thermodynamics

A physical law which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can change from one form to another.

Second law of thermodynamics

The physical law stating that when energy is transformed, the quantity of energy remains the same, but its ability to do work diminishes.

Positive Feedback Loop

A feedback loop in which change in a system is amplified.

Negative Feedback Loop

A feedback loop in which a system responds to a change by returning to its original state, or by decreasing the rate at which the change is occurring.

Population

The individuals that belong to the same species and live in a given area at a particular time.

Community

All of the populations of organisms within a given area.

Ecosystem

A particular location on Earth with interacting biotic and abiotic components.

Biotic factors

Living things.

Abiotic factors

Nonliving things.

Range of tolerance

The limits to the abiotic conditions that a species can tolerate.

Photosynthesis

The process by which producers use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose.

Aerobic respiration

The process by which cells convert glucose and oxygen into energy, carbon dioxide, and water.

Anaerobic respiration

The process by which cells convert glucose into energy in the absence of oxygen.

Food Webs

A complex model of how energy and matter move between trophic levels.

Food Chains

The sequence of consumption from producers through tertiary consumers.

Trophic levels

The successive levels of organisms consuming one another.

10% rule

Each trophic level can only give 10% of its energy to the next level.

Gross Primary Productivity

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

Net Primary Productivity

The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy producers respire.

Carbon cycle

The series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment.

Nitrogen cycle

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

Sulfur cycle

The process of sulfur moving through the atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.

Water cycle

The continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth.

Phosphorus cycle

The biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

Layers of the atmosphere

The troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.

Global Wind Belts

The prevailing westerlies, the tropical easterlies, and the polar easterlies.

Ocean circulation

Key regulator of climate by storing and transporting heat, carbon, nutrients and freshwater.

Upwelling

A process in which deep, cold water rises toward the surface.

Salt water ecosystems

Aquatic environments with high levels of dissolved salt.

Freshwater ecosystems

Aquatic environments with low salt concentration, consisting of lakes, rivers, ponds, wetlands, streams, and springs.

Tundra

Extremely cold climate with low biotic diversity and simple vegetation structure.

Tropical Rainforest

An ecosystem characterized by high rainfall and warm temperatures throughout the year.

Temperate Forest

Deciduous forests with distinct seasons and abundant moisture.

Temperate Grassland

Ecosystem characterized by cold winters and warm summers with some rain.

Savanna

Vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions with scattered trees.

Taiga/Boreal Forest

Ecosystem with long, cold winters and high annual precipitation, dominated by coniferous trees.

Species richness

The number of different species represented in an ecological community.

Species evenness

The commonness or rarity of a species in an environment.

Bottleneck effect

A sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events.

Allopatric speciation

Speciation that occurs through geographic isolation of populations.

Generalist species

Species that thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions.

Specialist species

Species that thrive only in restrictive environmental conditions.

Keystone species

A species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend.

Indicator Species

Species that provide information on the quality of the ecosystem.

Species Interaction

Interactions between species that can influence their survival.

Coevolution

Cases where two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution.

Resource Partitioning

The division of resources among species to reduce competition.

K-selected species

Species that grow slowly and have a stable population near carrying capacity.

R-selected species

Species that reproduce quickly and in large numbers.

Density dependent population control

Survival and reproduction probability changes with population size.

Density independent population control

Survival and reproduction are unaffected by population size.

Biotic potential

The maximum reproductive capacity of an organism under ideal conditions.

Carrying capacity

The maximum number of individuals in a species that the environment can support indefinitely.

Exponential growth

A growth model estimating future population size after a time period.

Logistic growth

A growth model describing a population whose growth slows as carrying capacity is approached.

Primary succession

Ecological succession occurring on surfaces devoid of soil.

Secondary succession

Succession of plant life that occurs in disturbed areas that still have soil.

Theory of island biogeography

A theory relating species richness to habitat size and distance.

Crude birth rate

The number of births per 1,000 individuals per year.

Crude death rate

The number of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year.

Infant mortality

The number of deaths of children under 1 year of age per 1,000 live births.

Life expectancy

The average number of years an infant can expect to live.

Total fertility

An estimate of the average number of children a woman will bear.

Replacement level fertility

Total fertility rate to offset average deaths in a population.

Demographic transition

Theory describing population growth shifts during economic development.

Calculating population change

CBR - CDR / 10.

Calculating doubling time

70 / growth rate.