Biology Lecture Notes Review

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture notes on ecology, population dynamics, and evolutionary biology.

Ecology

The study of interactions between organisms and their environment.

Physiological Ecology

The study of how organisms are adapted to their environment.

Behavioral Ecology

The study of how individual behavior contributes to survival and reproductive success.

Population Ecology

The study of factors affecting population growth, density, and size.

Community Ecology

The study of how populations of species interact and form functional communities.

Ecosystem Ecology

The study of energy flow and chemical cycling among organisms in a community.

Biodiversity

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

Abiotic Factors

Nonliving chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms.

Biome

Large geographic biotic units, characterized by specific climate, flora, and fauna.

Global Patterns

Trends observed in the distribution of plants and animals across the globe.

Atmospheric Circulation

The large-scale movement of air that, together with ocean circulation, distributes thermal energy on the surface of the Earth.

Three-Cell Model

A model that predicts the latitude position of biomes based on atmospheric circulation patterns.

Succession

The process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Exponential Growth

A growth pattern in which the population size doubles at a constant rate.

Logistic Growth

A growth pattern that describes how a population's growth slows and levels off as it approaches carrying capacity.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can support sustainably.

Density-Dependent Factors

Factors whose effects on the size of a population differ according to the population's density.

Density-Independent Factors

Factors affecting population size that operate independently of population density.

Competitive Exclusion Principle

States that two species competing for the same resources cannot coexist at constant population values.

Resource Partitioning

The differentiation of niches that enables similar species to coexist.

Chemical Defense

A method used by some organisms to deter predators by using toxic substances.

Evolutionary Adaptation

A trait that increases the fitness of an organism in a specific environment.

Endosymbiosis

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives inside the cells of another.