APES Unit 1: Ecosystems Vocab

Individual

one organism

Population

a group of the same species

Community

all living things in an area

Ecosystem

all living and nonliving things in an area

Biome

living things found in a region (determined by climate)

Climate

Temperature, precipitation, and altitude

Mutualism

Both organisms benefit

Commensalism

One organism benefits the other does not care (bird nest in a tree)

Competition

Neither organism benefits and it limits population size

Predation

One organism benefits and one suffers (herbivores, true predators, parasites, parasitoids)

Parasitoid

lays eggs in a host then babies feed on the organism

Symbiosis

any close long term interaction between two organisms (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism)

Resource/niche partitioning

taking a resource we both fight over and splitting it

Fundamental niche

the full theoretical range of environmental conditions and resources a species can use

Realized niche

the actual portion of that niche a species does occupy when limited by interactions such as competition and predation

High latitude biomes

Tundra and Boreal

Moderate latitude biomes

Temperate

Closer to the equator biomes

Tropical

Thermocline

Water gets colder as depth increases

Litoral

shallow water with plants

Limnetic

light can reach and there are phytoplankton

Profundal

no sun

Benthonic

murky bottom layer

Pelagic

all the layers related to depth

Reservoir

Holds matter

Sink

Accumulates or absorbs matter

Source

Discharges or releases matter

Infiltration

Rain trickles through soil to groundwater

Primary productivity

The rate solar energy is converted into organic compounds via photosynthesis over a unit of time (NPP=GPP-RL)

NPP

The amount of energy or biomass leftover for consumers after plants have used some for respiration

GPP

The total amount of light that plants capture and convert to glucose

RL

The energy plants use up for cellular respiration