APES Unit 1 Test Review

Comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from APES Unit 1 Test Review, including ecosystems, biomes, biogeochemical cycles, primary productivity, trophic levels, and food webs.

Mutualism

A type of symbiotic relationship between organisms where both species benefit from the interaction.

Parsitism

A type of symbiotic relationship between organisms where one organism benefits at the expense of the host organism.

Commensalism

A type of symbiotic relationship between organisms where one species benefits while the other is neither helped nor harmed.

Resource Partitioning

The strategy in which species divide limited resources in an ecosystem to lessen competition among them.

Terrestrial Biome

A major land-based biotic community defined primarily by two main factors: temperature and precipitation. Examples include temperate grassland, tropical rainforest, savanna, desert, and tundra.

Aquatic Biome Factors

The four main environmental factors that define aquatic biomes: salinity, depth, water flow, and temperature.

Coral & Algae Symbiosis

A mutualistic symbiotic relationship in aquatic ecosystems where algae reside within coral tissues, providing food via photosynthesis while receiving shelter and nutrients.

Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

Complementary biochemical processes in the carbon cycle where the products of photosynthesis ($C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6O_2$) serve as the reactants for cellular respiration, and vice versa.

Carbon Sink

A natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores carbon-containing chemical compounds for an indefinite period, absorbing more carbon than it releases.

Carbon Source

Any process or area that releases more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs.

Atmospheric Nitrogen ($N_2$)

The most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, which cannot be directly used by animals in its gaseous $N_2$ form and must be fixed into usable forms by bacteria.

Assimilation

The process in the nitrogen cycle by which plants and animals incorporate usable nitrogen compounds (such as nitrates) into their biological organic molecules.

Nitrification vs. Denitrification

Nitrification is the conversion of ammonia into nitrites and plant-usable nitrates by soil bacteria, whereas denitrification is the conversion of soil nitrates back into gaseous atmospheric nitrogen ($N_2$).

Limiting Factor

An environmental factor or resource, such as phosphorus in ecosystems, that restricts the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population due to its scarcity.

Eutrophication

A process triggered by nutrient runoff (such as phosphorus) that leads to algal blooms, reduced oxygen levels, and degradation of aquatic ecosystems.

Transpiration

The general process in the hydrologic cycle where water absorbed by plant roots evaporates from plant leaves into the atmosphere.

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

The total rate at which primary producers (plants/phytoplankton) capture solar energy and store it as chemical energy through photosynthesis in an ecosystem.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

The rate at which producers store energy after accounting for cellular respiration, defined by the equation $NPP = GPP - R$, where $R$ is respiration.

10% Rule

The ecological principle stating that only approximately $10$\% of the energy at one trophic level is transferred to the next higher trophic level, with the remaining $90$\% lost as heat.

Food Web

A complex network of interconnected food chains that illustrates the interactions among organisms and the flow of energy across multiple trophic levels in an ecosystem.