Biodiversity & the Interconnectedness of Life (Unit 3)
This is the term for the variety of species, ecosystems, and genetic differences within a region.
What is biodiversity?
These organisms break down dead material and recycle nutrients into the ecosystem.
What are decomposers?
The complete set of genetic material in an organism is known as this.
What is the genome?
The process by which organisms better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce is called this.
What is natural selection?
This measure of species diversity considers both richness and evenness.
What is the Simpson's Diversity Index?
This term describes the maximum population size an environment can sustain.
What is carrying capacity?
This process produces gametes with half the number of chromosomes.
What is meiosis?
Structures that are similar due to shared ancestry are described as this.
What are homologous structures?
The process by which new species form due to geographic separation is called this.
What is allopatric speciation?
The process where one species benefits while the other is unaffected is called this.
What is commensalism?
These are alternate forms of the same gene.
What are alleles?
Random changes in allele frequency due to chance events in small populations are called this.
What is genetic drift?
In ecological studies, this type of niche refers to the actual conditions and resources used by an organism.
What is the realised niche?
The predictable sequence of species changes in a community over time is called this.
What is ecological succession?
The law stating that alleles of different genes assort independently during gamete formation.
What is Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment?
This evolutionary force introduces new genetic variation into a population.
What is mutation?
This hypothesis suggests that ecosystems with more species are more stable and productive.
What is the diversity–stability hypothesis?
In a food web, this type of species has a disproportionately large effect on ecosystem structure.
What is a keystone species?
The phenomenon where one gene influences multiple traits is called this.
What is pleiotropy?
The combined genetic material of all individuals in a population is called this.
What is the gene pool?