BIO PT 2

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Biosphere

part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere

Abiotic

Non-living

Biotic

living

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

Community

All the different populations that live together in an area

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Biome

A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms

Habitat

Place where an organism lives

Niche

An organism's particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes its living.

Symbiosis

A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species.

Mutualism

A relationship between two species in which both species benefit

Commensalism

A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected

Parasitism

A relationship between two organisms of different species where one benefits and the other is harmed

Autotroph

An organism that makes its own food

Heterotroph

An organism that cannot make its own food.

Herbivore

A consumer that eats only plants.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats only animals.

Omnivore

An animal that eats both plants and animals

Decomposer

An organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms

Food Chain

A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten

Food Web

A community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains

Biomass

total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level

H2O Cycle

movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff and subsurface flow

N2 Cycle

Nitrogen fixation by bacteria puts nitrogen into the soil, plants use the nitrogen through assimilation, and denitrifying bacteria put the nitrogen from the soil back into the atmosphere

C & O2 Cycle

Plants use carbon dioxide in a process known as photosynthesis.

P Cycle

weather of rock adds PO4 to soil. Producers absorb and assimilate. Goes to consumers in organic form, then returned to soil by excretion and decomposition.

Limiting Factor

Any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms.

Tundra

An extremely cold, dry biome.

Nitrogen Fixation

Process of converting nitrogen gas into ammonia

Nitrogen Denitrification

other soil bacteria convert nitrogen compounds called nitrates back into nitrogen gas

Boreal/Taiga Forest

Coniferous (needle-leaved) forest that stretches from east to west across Canada, south of the tundra but north of the grasslands and mixed forest.

Temperate Forest

forest in a temperate region, characterized by trees that drop their leaves annually

Grasslands - C4

Sixty percent of C4 species are grasses, dominating warm-climate grasslands and savannas

Desert -CAM

carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions that allows a plant to photosynthesize during the day, but only exchange gases at night.

Savanna

An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

Rain Forest

Dense forest that receives high amounts of rain each year

Density

mass/volume

Independent

free from outside control; not depending on another's authority.

Dependent

Someone who relies on someone else for income and care

Carrying Capacity

Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support

Cell Cycle

series of events that cells go through as they grow and divide

Interphase

period of the cell cycle between cell divisions

Mitosis

part of eukaryotic cell division during which the cell nucleus divides

Cytokinesis

division of the cytoplasm

Chromosomes

threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

Chromatin

Clusters of DNA, RNA, and proteins in the nucleus of a cell

Prophase

Chromosomes become visable, nuclear envelop dissolves, spindle forms

Metaphase

Chromosomes line up in the middle of the cell

Telophase

After the chromosome seperates, the cell seals off, Final Phase of Mitosis.

G1

Cell growth

Crossing Over

Process in which homologous chromosomes exchange portions of their chromatids during meiosis.

Homologous Chromosomes

Chromosomes that have the same sequence of genes and the same structure

Cleavage Furrow

The first sign of cleavage in an animal cell; a shallow groove in the cell surface near the old metaphase plate.

Spindle Fibers

help pull apart the cell during replication and are made up of micrtubules

G2

Cell prepares to divide

Haploid

(genetics) an organism or cell having only one complete set of chromosomes

Diploid

(genetics) an organism or cell having two sets of chromosomes or twice the haploid number

Gametes

sex cells

Somatic Cells

body cells

Meiosis

Cell division that produces reproductive cells in sexually reproducing organisms

S

S phase is the period of wholesale DNA synthesis during which the cell replicates its genetic content

Allele

Different forms of a gene

Dominant

Describes a trait that covers over, or dominates, another form of that trait.

Recessive

An allele that is masked when a dominant allele is present

Homozygous

An organism that has two identical alleles for a trait

Heterozygous

An organism that has two different alleles for a trait

Pure Trait

genotype containing only dominant or only recessive

Hybrid Trait

genotype containing both dominant and recessive

Genotype

genetic makeup of an organism

Phenotype

An organism's physical appearance, or visible traits.

Incomplete Dominant

alleles which are not dominant to each other so that their characters either blend together or else produce a new phenotype that neither allele could produce by its self

Codominance

A condition in which neither of two alleles of a gene is dominant or recessive.

Sex

the biological distinction between females and males

Autosomes

Any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome

Nucleotide

monomer of nucleic acids made up of a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base

Nitrogen Bases

Molecules that contain nitrogen and other elements

Ligase

An enzyme that connects two fragments of DNA to make a single fragment

DNA

A complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.

Polymerase

an enzyme that brings about the formation of a particular polymer, especially DNA or RNA.

Helicase

An enzyme that untwists the double helix of DNA at the replication forks.

RNA Primer

short segment of RNA used to initiate synthesis of a new strand of DNA during replication

Transcription

(genetics) the organic process whereby the DNA sequence in a gene is copied into mRNA

Translation

Process by which mRNA is decoded and a protein is produced

mRNA

messenger RNA; type of RNA that carries instructions from DNA in the nucleus to the ribosome

tRNA

transfer RNA; type of RNA that carries amino acids to the ribosome

Codon

A specific sequence of three adjacent bases on a strand of DNA or RNA that provides genetic code information for a particular amino acid

Anticodon

group of three bases on a tRNA molecule that are complementary to an mRNA codon

Natural Selection

A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Artificial Selection

Breeding organisms with specific traits in order to produce offspring with identical traits.

Homologous Structure

Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.

Vestigial Structure

structure that is inherited from ancestors but has lost much or all of its original function

Analogous Structure

Body parts that share a common function, but not structure

Embryonic Evolution

the idea that at various stages during their development, embryos resemble the adult forms of their evolutionary ancestors

Gene Pool

Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population

Genetic Drift

A change in the allele frequency of a population as a result of chance events rather than natural selection.

Founder Effect

change in allele frequencies as a result of the migration of a small subgroup of a population

Common Ancestor

The shared ancestor of new, different species that arose from one population

Bottleneck

process in which a large population declines in number, then rebounds

Speciation

Formation of new species

Biodiversity

the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.