Populations & Sustainability Flashcards

A set of vocabulary-style flashcards covering key concepts from the Populations & Sustainability lecture notes, including ecological interactions, conservation techniques, and sustainable management.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum stable population size of a species that an ecosystem can support.

Environmental Resistance

The combined effects of limiting factors that prevent the further increase of a population.

Abiotic Factors

The non-living parts of an ecosystem, including light availability, water supply, temperature, and soil pH.

Biotic Factors

The living parts of an ecosystem, involving interactions between organisms such as competition and predation.

Interspecific Competition

Competition for the same resources between individuals from different species, such as the grey squirrel ($Sciurus\,carolinensis$) and the red squirrel ($Sciurus\,vulgaris$).

Intraspecific Competition

Competition between individuals from the same species for the same resources.

Competitive Exclusion

A process where one of two species occupying similar niches is better adapted and out-competes the other, eventually forcing it to move, evolve, or die out.

Resource Partitioning

The division of a resource to satisfy the needs of different feeders, allowing them to coexist on different parts of the same resource.

Character Displacement

The differentiation of closely related species in the same geographical region to minimize niche overlap, as seen in the beak dimensions of Galapagos finches.

Conservation

Maintaining biodiversity and sustainability by allowing managed human activity and intervention alongside other species.

Preservation

Maintaining habitats and populations exactly as they are now, with no allowance for human usage or intervention.

Keystone Species

Species that have a larger impact on an ecosystem than others, such as bush elephants in the African savannah whose grazing helps maintain the ecosystem.

Sustainability

The ability of an ecosystem to maintain or increase its biodiversity while providing humans with resources over a long period of time.

Trolling

A sustainable fishing practice using hook-and-line that reduces bycatch and damage to the seabed.

Coppicing

A felling technique where trees are cut close to the ground, leaving a stump from which new shoots can grow and be harvested every $7$ years.

Pollarding

A felling technique where trees are cut $2-3\,\text{metres}$ above the ground to prevent herbivores from eating the new shoots.

Monoculture

A specialized agricultural or forestry system that grows only one type of crop or livestock, often resulting in low biodiversity.

Biodiversity

The range and variety of genes, species, and habitats within a particular region.

Environmental Services

Essential functions provided by ecosystems, such as plants absorbing carbon dioxide, microorganisms breaking down waste, and the contribution of plants to the water cycle.

Bycatch

Unintentional species caught during commercial fishing, which can be reduced by using techniques like trolling instead of gillnets.