Chapter 38: Communities and Ecosystems

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Biology

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31 Terms

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niche
includes all of the resources required for survival, growth, and reproduction
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Competition
harms both participants. occurs when two or more species try to obtain the same limited resource.
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Mutualism
both species benefit, relationship improves the fitness of both partners. +/+
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Commensalism
benefits one and does not affect the other, one species benefits, but the other is not significantly affected. +/o
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Symbiotic
relationships occur when two species share a close (and often lifelong) relationship in which one typically lives in or on the other.
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competitive exclusion principle
the species that acquires more of the resources will eventually "win," while the less successful species will die out.
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Resource partitioning
the division of resources to avoid interspecific competition for limited resources in an ecosystem
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parasitism
harms onr and benifits another, one species benefits at the expense of another +/-
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Herbivores
consume plants.
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Predators
animals that kill and eat other animals
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prey
An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism
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Coevolution
two species evolve together
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species richness
is the total number of species occupying a habitat
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Species evenness
describes the proportion of a community that each species occupies.
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Succession
gradual change in a community's species composition
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Primary succession
occurs in an area where no community previously existed
(such as following a volcanic eruption).
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Pioneer species
the first to colonize the new area.
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Secondary succession
occurs when a community is disturbed but not destroyed.
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climax conditions
diversity and composition are stable
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trophic level
describes its position in the food chain. Dictates organisms for energy aqured from food.
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Primary producers
use energy from an inorganic source (such as sunlight) to produce organic molecules.
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Consumers/ heterotrophs
obtain energy from eating producers or other consumers
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detritus
dead tissue and organic wastes such as feces.
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Decomposers
return the inorganic nutrients in detritus to the environment
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food web
realistic depiction of the feeding relationships in a community
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Keystone species
central to maintaining diversity in a community.
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Primary production
energy trapped by producers and stored as food molecules that consumers can eat.
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biomagnification
a chemical becomes most concentrated in organisms at the highest trophic levels
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Nitrogen fixation
microbes convert N_2 to a source that cycles through producers and consumers
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denitrification
bacteria convert NH4 and NO3 back to N2 and release it to the atmosphere
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eutrophication
excessive nutrients ultimately lead to oxygen-poor water that cannot sustain much life