AP Environmental Science: Island Biogeography, Ecological Tolerance, and Natural Disturbances

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from island biogeography, ecological tolerance, and natural disruptions to ecosystems.

Island Biogeography

The study of ecological relationships and the distribution of organisms on islands, as well as the structures of their ecological communities.

Habitat Island

A natural habitat surrounded by human-developed land or unsuitable conditions, such as Central Park in New York City or National Parks.

Island Size Effect

The ecological pattern in which larger islands support higher ecosystem diversity, more available niches, larger population sizes, lower extinction rates, and greater overall species richness.

Distance Effect (Island Biogeography)

The inverse relationship between an island's distance from the mainland and its species richness, where islands closer to the mainland experience more frequent migration, higher genetic diversity, and greater species richness.

Adaptive Radiation

The process by which a single colonizing species rapidly evolves into several distinct species with specialized adaptations, such as distinct beak shapes in Galapagos finches, to utilize different food sources and reduce competition.

Ecological Tolerance

The range of environmental conditions (such as temperature, salinity, pH, flow rate, and sunlight) that an individual or species can endure before experiencing physiological injury or death.

Optimal Range

The specific range of environmental conditions in which organisms survive, grow, and reproduce most successfully.

Zone of Physiological Stress

The range of environmental conditions in which an organism can survive, but experiences stress resulting in symptoms like infertility, decreased activity, or lack of growth.

Zone of Intolerance

The range of environmental conditions beyond an organism's tolerance limits, where severe conditions such as thermal shock, suffocation, or severe lack of resources result in death.

Thermal Tolerance

The ability of individual organisms or species to withstand and live in warmer water or environmental temperatures.

Natural Disturbances

Non-human environmental events, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, asteroids, forest fires, and droughts, that disrupt ecosystem structure and function.

Periodic Disturbances

Natural disruptions that occur with regular, predictable frequency, such as seasonal dry-wet cycles.

Episodic Disturbances

Occasional natural disruption events that occur with irregular frequency, such as hurricanes, droughts, and forest fires.

Random Disturbances

Natural disruption events that occur with no regular or predictable frequency, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and asteroid impacts.

Wildlife Migration

The movement of animal populations to new habitats in response to natural disruptions or seasonal environmental variations, such as wildebeests following rainfall patterns across the African savanna.