Chapter 13
The study of the interactions among living things and between living things, and their surroundings.
What is ecology?
All the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where an organism lives.
What is a habitat
All the living things within the biosphere
What is biota?
Movement directly toward or away from an external stimuli
What is taxis
The ability to solve problems without repeated trial and error
What is insight?
A group of different species that live together in one area
What is a community?
All the physical, chemical, and biological factors that a species needs to thrive.
What is a niche?
All the Earth's water, ice and water vapor
What is the hydrosphere?
A type of information that can make an organism change its behavior
What is a stimulus?
The number of valves a clam has
What is two?
A species that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem.
What is a keystone species?
Species that occupy similar niches but live in different regions.
What are ecological equivalents?
A partially enclosed body of water formed where a river flows into an ocean
What is an estuary
A daily cycle that occurs on a 24 hour cyce
What is a circadian rhthym?
The science of naming and classifying organisms
What is taxonomy?
An organism that eats only plants
What is a herbivore?
When two organisms fight for limited resources.
What is competition?
The keystone species in many estuaries
What is a horseshoe crab
A simple signal that triggers innate behavior
What is a releaser?
Chemicals that are released by an animal that affect thee behaviors of others of the same species
What are phermones?
A sequence that links species by their feeding relationships
What is a food chain?
The measurement of the number of individuals living in a defined space
What is population density?
What is a watershed?
When an animal reduces it's own fitness to benefit others
What is altruism?
The mental process of knowing through perception or reasoning
What is cognition