Ecology - Study of interactions of living organisms with one another and with their   

      physical environment.

Habitat - place where a particular population of a species lives

Species - a group of organisms that are able to reproduce and produce fertile offspring.

Population - all the organisms of the same species that live in a specific area and are capable of breeding among themselves

Community - the many different species that live together in a habitat

Ecosystem - a community and all of the physical aspects of its habitat (soil, air, water, 

weather).

Biome - major biological community that occurs over a large area of land

Abiotic - the physical, or non-living aspects of a habitat.

Biotic - the living organisms of a habitat.

Biodiversity - number of species living within an ecosystem

Pioneer Species - the first organisms to colonize barren or disrupted environments, such as those affected by natural disasters or human activities

Succession - regular progression of species replacement.

Primary Succession - succession that occurs when organisms first colonize a barren, lifeless habitat that has been disturbed by an extreme event, such as a lava flow or retreating glacier or perhaps a new island made by underwater volcanic eruptions. These environments are typically lacking in soil and nutrients.

Secondary Succession - succession that occurs in areas where there has been  previous growth (ex: forest fires, forest clearings)

Primary Productivity - the rate at which organic material is produced by photosynthetic 

 organisms in an ecosystem

Climax community - the final stage of succession, remaining relatively unchanged until destroyed by an event such as fire or human interference.

Autotroph - Organisms that make their own food, producers (plants, some protists, some bacteria) (photoautotrophs do photosynthesis for energy; chemoautotrophs use inorganic compounds for energy).

Heterotroph - Organisms that consume others for food, consumers (animals, fungi, some protists, some bacteria)

Producer - organisms that first capture energy and that make their own food (plants).

Consumer - organisms that consume producers for food (animals).

Trophic Level - a specific level in an ecosystem based on the organism’s source of 

  energy

Food Chain - the path of energy through the trophic levels of an ecosystem

Herbivores - second trophic level, animals that eat plants or other primary producer

Carnivores - third trophic level, animals that eat herbivores

Omnivores - both herbivores and carnivores

Detritivores - obtain energy from organic waste and dead bodies, release nutrients 

    back into environment (decomposers: worms, bacteria, fungi)

Carcass - dead body of an animal

Scavenger - an organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant material. (often carnivores that eat what is left over from a predator’s kill)

Food Web - a complicated, interconnected group of food chains

Biomass - the dry weight of tissue and other organic matter found in a specific 

      ecosystem

Predation - the act of one organism feeding on another

Symbiosis - two or more different species live together in a close, long-term association

Parasitism - one organism feeds on another and lives on or in the other (called the host), does not usually kill the host (ticks)

Predator (predation) - an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals : an animal that preys on other animals.

Apex - top

Prey - animals that are killed and eaten by other animals. Context: Rabbits and crickets are both eaten by bigger animals; they are prey.

Mutualism - a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit (ants and aphids)

Commensalism - one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped

Cooperation (or cooperativity) - when organisms work together for a mutual benefit, rather than competing for individual gain. It can occur between members of the same species, or between different species that have symbiotic or mutualistic relationships.

Warning coloration - bright color patterns on an animal (as an insect) that serve to warn possible predators that the animal is undesirable as prey (as by being poisonous or bad-tasting)

Camouflage - a defense or strategy that organisms use to hide their appearance and blend in with their surroundings.

Opportunistic - organisms survive, and then when favorable conditions arise, they immediately take advantage of the opportunity to thrive. (ex. Weeds growing in the forest after a tree falls and more light is available)

Monogamy - a mating system in which a single adult male and a single adult female mate. They typically raise the offspring together. Such pair bonds may last for a single breeding season or many breeding seasons.

Silage - fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation to the point of souring. It is fed to cattle, sheep and other ruminants. (this showed up in an ap question once)

Toxin - a poisonous substance 

Exotoxin - toxic substance that is secreted by bacteria and enter host cells

Endotoxin - toxic substance bound to the bacterial cell wall and released when the bacterium ruptures or disintegrates

Pesticides - chemicals used to kill, repel, or control forms of life considered to damage or to be a nuisance in agriculture and domestic life. Examples include herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc. 

metabolism/metabolic - all of the chemical reactions that occur in a living organism

Biological magnification - the process of accumulation of certain chemicals in living organisms to a concentration higher than that occurring in the inorganic, non-living environment.

Concentration

1. the relative amount of a given substance contained within a solution or in a particular volume of space; (the amount of solute per unit volume of solution.)

Ex. "the gas can collect in dangerous concentrations"

2. the action of strengthening a solution by the removal of water (or other liquid)

Thermal stratification (of lakes) - refers to a change in the temperature at different depths in the lake, and is due to the density of water varying with temperature. Cold water is denser than warm water.

Terrestrial - land

Aquatic - water

Aqueous - water

Fresh water - not salty (such as a lake or aquifer)

Marine - salt water (ocean, sea, etc.)

Salinity - how salty the water is

Thermodynamics - the relationship between forms of energy (light energy converted to chemical energy in photosynthesis, and then dissipated to the environment and/or used by consumers). No energy conversion is 100% efficient; some energy is always lost as heat.

Biomass - the total quantity or weight of organisms in a given area

Niche: an organism’s job in a community

Fundamental Niche - the entire range of conditions an organism is potentially able to  occupy

Realized Niche - the part of its fundamental niche that a species occupies (another species might outcompete it in part of the niche)

Gross Primary Productivity: the rate of photosynthesis taking place in an area

Net Primary Productivity: The biomass left over in phototrophs after photosynthesis and respiration takes place.

Nitrogen Fixation: Taking nitrogen in air (N₂) which is unusable by plants and changing it to nitrite (NO₂) or ammonia (NH₃). This is a process done by certain bacteria

nitrogen fixing bacteria - bacteria that perform nitrogen fixation. They may live in the soil, or in the root nodules of legumes (such as clover, beans, peas).

Denitrification: Taking nitrate and ammonium and turning it back into nitrogen (N₂) in the air.

denitrifying bacteria - microorganisms whose action results in the conversion of nitrates in the soil to free atmospheric nitrogen. They do the opposite of nitrogen fixation

Nitrate - NO₃

Nitrite - NO₂

You don’t need to know the difference between the two above, just that they are usable (as opposed to atmospheric nitrogen)

Nitrification: Take nitrite NO₂ and turn it into nitrate NO₃ You probably don’t need to know this one

Assimilation: Organisms use nitrate and ammonium to make DNA and amino acids.

Ammonification: Taking NH₃ and turning it into NH₄.

Excretion - the process of eliminating or expelling waste matter (excrement would mean poop/feces)

Secretion - a substance made and released by a living thing. Could be a hormone released into the blood. 

Anaerobes - organisms that do not use oxygen

aerobes - organisms that do use oxygen

Ozone - O₃  (Important layer of the atmosphere that protects living things on our planet from ultraviolet radiation from the sun)

ultraviolet radiation - part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has more energy than visible light, but is not detected by human eyes

CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) - cause significantly stratospheric ozone depletion and global warming relating to the greenhouse effect.

greenhouse effect - a natural process that occurs when greenhouse gasses in a planet's atmosphere trap heat from the sun and prevent it from escaping into space, warming the planet's surface. Greenhouse gasses include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, water, and some artificial chemicals.

Olfactory - smell

Eliminate - to get rid of

Sink: a storage place of an element

Source: a process that releases an element.

Non-native species: a species that is not known historically in an area. Ex: cane toads in Australia

Invasive species - non-native species to the ecosystem under consideration; is able to reproduce quickly (with no natural predators), so it often takes over the environment, outcompeting native species and decreasing species diversity.

Species diversity: a count of how many species are in an area and their relative abundance. (includes species richness/the number of species in an area, and species evenness/the relative abundance of each species in the area)

Germination: sprouting of a seed

Competitive Exclusion Principle: species with the same niche in the same area cannot coexist

Tragedy of the Commons: theory of a situation within a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently and rationally according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting that resource

Keystone Species: often a dominant predator whose removal allows a prey population to explode and often decreases overall diversity. Ex: sea otter

Mimicry: the close external resemblance of an animal or plant (or part of one) to another animal, plant, or inanimate object

Interspecific Competition: competition between two different species.

Intraspecific Competition: competition the same species

Aerobic: using oxygen

Anaerobic: using no oxygen

Evaporation - The process by which molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to the gas state

Transpiration - The process by which water is lost through a plant’s stomata (leaves, stem)

Stomata - holes in a plant made by guard cells. These allow for gas exchange between the plant and the environment

Energy pyramid - A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web. As you move upward, from level to level, in an energy pyramid, energy decreases. The greatest amount of energy in an ecosystem is available to producers

Exponential Growth - If a population has a constant birth rate through time and is never limited by food or disease, it has what is known as exponential growth. 

Logarithmic growth - population growth is slowed as carrying capacity is reached.

carrying capacity - the maximum number of organisms that a region can support without environmental degradation.

Limiting factors - Anything that restricts the number of individuals living in a population (ex. Amount of sunlight or amount of nitrogen in the soil)

Density dependent factors - limiting factors that affect population growth based on the size of the population, such as predation, competition, parasitism

Density independent factors  - limiting factors that affect population growth but are NOT based on the size of the population, such as weather  

Mortality - death

R-strategy - organisms that are best suited to live in unstable, unpredictable environments. Here the ability to reproduce rapidly (exponentially) is important.

K-strategy - organisms that are best suited to live in stable, predictable environments. Traits that are thought to be characteristic of K-selection include large body size, long life expectancy, and the production of fewer offspring, which often require extensive parental care until they mature.

organic molecules - contain two or more carbon atoms (carbohydrates, lipids, etc.)

inorganic molecules - contain zero or one carbon atoms (ex. Water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas)

Nocturnal - night

Diurnal - day

Sustainability - the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level

Optimum - best

Destabilize - to make unstable

Consistent - same

Progeny - offspring, babies, spawn, brood

Spawn - (verb) to release or deposit eggs (or, (noun)  the eggs of fish, frogs, etc.)

Brood - a family of young animals, especially of a bird, produced at one hatching or birth

Reintroduction - the action of putting a species of animal or plant back into a former habitat.

Consequence - a result or effect of an action or condition.Consequences can be good!

Influx - to come into an area

Upstream - in the opposite direction from that in which a stream or river flows

Consume - to eat, dring, or ingest; also, to use up