Community Ecology Vocabulary Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamental concepts of community ecology, including species interactions, symbiosis, feeding hierarchies, and the threats facing pollinator populations as described in Chapter 21.

Pollen

Small, thick-walled plant structures that contain cells that develop into sperm.

Pollination

The transfer of pollen from male to female plant structures so that fertilization can occur.

Ecological communities

Groups of interacting populations of different species living together in the same area.

Angiosperms

Flowering plants; $75\%$ of which are dependent on insect pollinators.

Food chains

Linked sequences of feeding relationships in a community where organisms are categorized by who eats whom.

Producers

Autotrophs that supply energy to the rest of the food chain.

Consumers

Heterotrophs that eat producers.

Predators

Organisms that feed on other organisms (prey).

Carnivory

Predation on animals.

Herbivory

Predation on plants.

Trophic levels

Feeding levels based on positions in a food chain; energy is lost as it flows through these levels.

Food web

A complex interconnection of feeding relationships in a community that shows the actual complexity of feeding.

Omnivores

Organisms that eat both plants and animals.

Symbiosis

A relationship in which two different organisms live together, often interdependently.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which both members benefit, such as bees and flowers or clownfish and anemones.

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship in which one member benefits at the expense of the other, such as Varroa mites and bees.

Commensalism

A symbiotic relationship in which one member benefits and the other is unharmed, such as bees building hives on trees.

Niche

The space, environmental conditions, and resources that a species needs in order to survive and reproduce.

Competition

The result when two or more species rely on the same limited resources due to overlapping niches.

Competitive exclusion

A situation where one of the competing species is unable to gain sufficient resources, sometimes due to aggressive behavior from another species.

Resource partitioning

A mechanism where competing species make use of different resources.

Specialist

A species that specializes in a particular food source.

Generalist

A species that feeds on a wide variety of food sources.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

A phenomenon characterized by the loss of honey bee colonies, often leaving few adults in the hive to care for larvae.

Primary consumers

Organisms that obtain energy by eating producers, such as herbivores.

Secondary consumers

Organisms that obtain energy by eating primary consumers, such as carnivores.

Introduced species

A species brought to a location where it is not native.

Invasive species

An introduced species that competes with and drives out native species.

Neonicotinoids

A class of pesticides, such as imidacloprid, that can impair and kill bees.