Ch 3 - Biotic Interactions

Abundance

Number of individuals in a given

Acclimatization

Adjusting to stress through behavior or physiology

Adaptations

Features of organisms that improve their ability to survive and reproduce.

Avoidance

Change in behavior, location, etc. to get away from stressful enviornmental variables.

Carnivory

Type of predations interaction where one animal consumes another animal.

Coevolution

Reciprocal evolutionary changes in interacting species.

Commensalism

Type of interaction with one species benefitting from the interaction, while the other neither benefits nor is harmed.

Community

All species living in same geographic location with the potential to interact.

Competition

Interaction where two species have an overlap in their ecological niche, reducing resources for all and both populations suffering negative effects.

Ecosystem engineer

Species that creates, significantly modifies, or maintains a habitat, benefitting all organisms utilizing that location.

Ectotherms

Thermoregulation through energy exchange with external environment

Endotherms

Thermoregulation by production of internal body heat.

Euryhaline

Organisms can tolerate a relatively wide range of salinity.

Fitness

Genetic contribution of an organisms descendants to future generations

Fecundity

Number of offspring of an individual.

Foundation species

Species that is dominant in community, usually found in high abundance or biomass and have large impact on cummunity structure and diversity.

Genetic drift

Chance events determine which alleles are passed to the next generation

Gene flow

Movement of alleles by gametes or individuals

Herbivory

Type of predation interaction where one organism consumes another animal

Homeotherm

Animal that maintains a constant body temperature

Intraspecific competition

Competition between population members of the same species for resources.

Invasive species

New species accidentally or intentionally introduced into new natural habitats and increase in population size at the expense of native species.

Keystone species

Species os “key” to maintaining biodiversity within an ecosystem, despite the fact they are usually found in low abundance or biomass.

Mutualism

Two species benefit from their interaction

Mutations

Random changes in DNA sequences.

Natural selection

Individuals with certain heritable traits survive and reproduce more successfully than other individuals.

Parasitism

Type of predation interaction where one organism (parasite) live in or on another living organism (host) and derifes nutrients from it.

Predation

Interactions where one species is benefitting while another species is suffering some type of negative effects.

Osmoconformers

Organisms maintain internal fluids with solute concentration equal to environment (isosmotic)

Osmoregulation

Maintenance of water and solute balance

Osmoregulators

Body fluids different concentration when environment (hypoosmotic or hyper osmotic)

Overharvesting

Removal or harvest rate of an organism is greater than what can be replaced by the population.

Poikilotherms

Animals with constantly varying internal temperatures.

Population

Group of individuals of the same species that live in a particular area and interact with one another.

Population density

number of individuals per unit area

Range of tolerance

Upper and lower l9mits of environmental factors that can be tolerated bu organisms.

Salt gland

Specialized organ for excreting excess salt, allowing organisms to drink saltwater

Sexual selection

Type of natural selection affecting traits involved in mating

Species diversity

Number of species occupying the same habitat and their relative abundance

Stenohaline

Organisms can tolerate a relatively narrow range of salinity

Stress

Environmental change results in decreased ratess of phyziological processes, lowering the potential for survival, growth, or reproduction

Symbiosis

Interaction between two organisms, with one species that lives on or in another organism.

Tolerance

Ability to withstand environmental variables.