Ecological Foundations
The scientific study of relationships between organisms and their environment.
What is ecology?
A group of individuals of the same species in a given area is called a ________.
What is a population?
What biome contains the world's highest biodiversity?
What is the tropical rain forest?
The Earth system in which water moves from atmosphere to land and back is the ________ cycle.
What is the hydrologic cycle?
The upper layer of a forest community is known as what?
What is the canopy?
Humans have altered the nitrogen cycle primarily through ________.
What is burning fossil fuels?
The living components of an ecosystem are called ________, and the nonliving components are ________.
What are biotic and abiotic?
The maximum sustainable population size for an environment is known as what?
What is carrying capacity?
A perennially frozen subsurface found in Arctic systems is called what?
What is permafrost?
The top organic layer of soil is also called the ________ horizon.
What is the O horizon?
Strips of habitat connecting patches are called ________.
What are corridors?
Wetlands support waterfowl, amphibians, aquatic invertebrates… meaning they are incredibly valuable examples of what?
What are biodiverse ecosystems?
Openings in leaves that allow uptake of CO₂ are called what?
What are stomata?
A species with a disproportionately large effect relative to its abundance is called a ________ species.
What is a keystone species?
These forest types dominate warm, wet regions with no seasonality.
What are broadleaf evergreen forests?
Which nutrient cycle lacks a major atmospheric phase?
What is phosphorus?
A boundary transition zone between two ecosystems is a(n) ________.
What is an ecotone?
More than 75% of human-caused extinctions since AD 1600 result mainly from what?
What is human activity?
This process converts CO₂ into organic molecules using sunlight.
What is photosynthesis?
Competition affects two interacting species in what way?
What is detrimental to both?
Which biome has the largest trees in the world?
What is the coniferous forest?
The breakdown of chemical bonds in plant and animal tissues is called what?
What is decomposition?
The study of spatial patterns and their ecological consequences is called ________.
What is landscape ecology?
Communities are fighting to remove dams because of their impacts on what ecosystems?
What are freshwater systems?
The timing of seasonal biological events—such as flowering or migration—is called what?
What is phenology?
When two species evolve in response to one another through natural selection, it is called what?
What is coevolution?
Lakes with high nutrients and high biological productivity are referred to as what?
What are eutrophic lakes?
The source of all carbon in living organisms is ________.
What is carbon dioxide?
In island biogeography, islands with the most species are:
What is large and close to the mainland?
Species found in only one geographic place are called ________. Regions with high concentrations of these species and high threat levels are ________.
What are endemic species and biodiversity hotspots?