Unit B: Ecosystems and Diversity

Flashcards generated from lecture notes on ecosystems and their diversity.

What is an organism's environment?

Everything that affects an organism throughout its life, as well as everything that the organisms affect.

What are biotic components?

Living components of the environment, such as plants, animals, and bacteria.

What are abiotic components?

Non-living components of the environment, such as sunlight, water, minerals, and air.

What defines an organism?

Individual living being.

What defines a species?

Organisms that can breed to produce fertile offspring.

What is a population?

A group of individuals of one species in a given area at a given time.

What defines a community?

Populations of several species interacting in one area.

What is an ecosystem?

A community (living) and its non-living environment.

What defines the biosphere?

Ecosystems interacting together, including the earth and parts of the atmosphere and soil.

What is taxonomy?

The practice of categorizing living things.

What were the two kingdoms in Aristotle's early classification system?

Plants and animals.

Who was Ernst Haeckel?

Proposed classifying microorganisms that were neither plants nor animals as Kingdom Protista.

What are the three domains of life?

Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.

What are prokaryotic domains?

Unicellular organisms lacking membrane-bound organelles.

What defines Domain Eukarya?

Organisms containing membrane-bound organelles.

What are viruses?

Genetic material enclosed in a protein coat that cannot replicate alone.

What are the six kingdoms of life?

Archaea, Bacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Where can Kingdom Archaea thrive?

Extreme and harsh environments such as salt lakes and hot springs.

Where can Kingdom Bacteria live?

Anywhere.

What are the primary characteristics of Kingdom Protista?

Can be unicellular or multicellular and can make their own food or ingest it via photosynthesis or absorption

What defines Kingdom Fungi?

Multicellular organisms that secrete digestive enzymes and absorb the released molecules.

What are the primary characteristics of Kingdom Plantae?

Multicellular organisms that photosynthesize to make their own food.

What defines Kingdom Animalia?

Multicellular organisms that ingest their food.

What are the levels of classification?

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

What are the two parts of an organism's scientific name (binomial nomenclature)?

The genus and the species.

What is a dichotomous key?

A branched or stepped process that helps to identify organisms based on visible characteristics.

What is climate?

Average weather patterns in a particular region, mainly determined by temperature and rainfall.

What is weather?

Short term (immediate) fluctuations in temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation.

What are biomes?

Large ecosystems with a particular climate and a particular mix of plants and animals adapted to specific conditions.

How does latitude affect climate?

The amount of sunlight striking Earth's surface and influencing average yearly temperatures.

How does altitude influence climate?

Air is thinner and retains less heat, causing temperature to drop.

What are the abiotic conditions required for life?

Nutrients, energy, liquid water, and appropriate temperature.

What defines a habitat?

Place or area within a biome or ecosystem that has a particular set of biotic and abiotic characteristics.

What defines range?

The geographical area where the organism is found.

What is an ecological niche?

The role that its members play in a community, including food sources, shelter, and active times.

What limits the distribution of terrestrial organisms?

Temperature, precipitation, soil type, and soil nutrients.

What limits the distribution of aquatic organisms?

Temperature, sunlight, oxygen content, nutrient availability, and salinity.

What are primary characteristics of the littoral zone?

Near the shore with shallow water, abundant light, and adequate nutrients.

What are primary characteristics of the limnetic zone?

Further from the shore (top layer of water) where plants cannot anchor but still receive enough light.

What are primary characteristics of the profundal zone?

Lies below the limnetic zone (deep waters) with insufficient light for photosynthesis but abundant nutrients.

What are primary characteristics of Oligotrophic Lakes?

Water is clear with little sediment and/or microscopic life.

What are primary characteristics of Eutrophic Lakes?

Larger inputs of sediments, organic material, and inorganic nutrients from the surroundings.

What is the photic zone in marine ecosystems?

Upper layers where sunlight is able to reach so organisms can photosynthesize, up to ~650ft/200m

What is the aphotic zone in marine ecosystems?

Deeper layers where sunlight does not penetrate. Energy and nutrients come from dead organisms and waste (excrement) sinking down from above.

What are limiting factors?

Biotic and abiotic conditions that limit the number of individuals in a species.

What are examples of abiotic limiting factors?

Light availability, space, temperature, humidity, moisture, nutrients, and soil type.

What is competition for resources?

Occurs when there is not enough resources for all individuals, negatively impacting both parties involved.

What is intraspecific competition?

Competition among members of the same population.

What is interspecific competition?

Competition between two or more populations.

What is predation?

Involves the consumption of one organism by another and can significantly impact the makeup of a community.

What are invasive species?

Species that are introduced to an environment that they are not native to.

What is parasitism?

One organism (parasite) derives its nourishment from another species (the host) who is harmed in some way.

What is sampling using a transect?

Sampling a very long rectangle to record individuals encountered within a certain distance.

What is sampling using a quadrant?

Several locations are randomly chosen, and the number of individuals within a quadrant (square) is counted to estimate population density.

What is density when using quadrant sampling for populations?

Density is the number of individuals per unit of area/volume.