Environmental Systems and Societies Glossary

Flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the Environmental Systems and Societies glossary.

A non-living, physical factor that may influence an organism or ecosystem is known as __________.

Abiotic factor

The measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen required to break down organic material in water is called __________.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

An organism or material that can be broken down by natural biological processes is referred to as __________.

Biodegradable

The amount of biological diversity per unit area, including species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity, is called __________.

Biodiversity

The total mass of organic material in organisms or ecosystems is known as __________.

Biomass

A collection of ecosystems that share similar climatic conditions is termed a __________.

Biome

The part of the Earth inhabited by organisms is called the __________.

Biosphere

A living factor that may influence an organism or ecosystem, such as predation or competition, is known as __________.

Biotic factor

The maximum number of a species that can be sustainably supported by a given environment is referred to as __________.

Carrying capacity

A stable community of organisms in equilibrium with natural environmental conditions is called a __________.

Climax community

A group of populations living and interacting in a common habitat is known as a __________.

Community

The competition for limited resources among two or more organisms is termed __________.

Competition

A measure of the association between two variables is called __________.

Correlation

The number of births per thousand individuals in a population per year is known as __________.

Crude birth rate

The number of deaths per thousand individuals in a population per year is referred to as __________.

Crude death rate

The general model describing changing levels of fertility and mortality in a human population over time is called __________.

Demographic transition

A generic term for heterogeneity in ecology is known as __________.

Diversity

The range of genetic material present in a gene pool or population of a species is termed __________.

Diversity, genetic

The range of different habitats or number of ecological niches per unit area is referred to as __________.

Diversity, habitat

A numerical measure of species diversity derived from both the number of species and their proportional abundance is called __________.

Diversity index