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Genetic diversity:
A measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population.
Species diversity:
The number of species in a region or in a particular ecosystem.
Habitat diversity:
The variety of habitats that exist in a given ecosystem.
Ecosystem diversity:
The variety of ecosystems that exist in a given region.
Biodiversity:
The diversity of life forms in an environment.
Generalists:
Species that can live under a wide range of biotic or abiotic conditions.
Specialists:
Species that only live under a narrow range of biotic or abiotic conditions.
Periodic disruption:
Occurring regularly, such as the cycles of day and night or the daily and nightly cycle of the moons effects on ocean tides.
Episodic disruption:
occurring somewhat regularly, such as cycles of high rain and low rain that occur every 5 to 10 years.
Occurring with no regular pattern such as volcanic eruptions or hurricanes.
Population bottleneck:
When a large population declines in number, the amount of genetic diversity carried by the surviving individuals is greatly reduced.
Resistance:
In an ecosystem, a measure of how much a disruption can affect flows of energy and matter.
Resilience:
The rate at which an ecosystem returns to its original state after a disruption.
Fitness:
An individuals ability to survive and reproduce.
Adaptation:
A trait that improves an individuals fitness.
Ecosystem services:
The process by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced.
Sympatric speciation:
The evolution of one species into two, without geographic isolation.
Allopatric speciation:
The process of speciation that occurs with geographic isolation.
Ecological tolerance(Fundamental niche)
The suit of abiotic conditions under which a species can survive, grow, and reproduce.
Species-area curve:
A description of how the number of species on an island increases with the area of the island.
Endemic species:
Species that live in a very small area of the world and nowhere else, often in isolated locations such as the Hawaiian Islands.
Indicator species:
A species that demonstrates a particular characteristic of an ecosystem.
Keystone species:
A species that is not very abundant but has large effects on an ecological community.
Pioneer species:
In primary succession, species that can survive with little to no soil.
Intermediate disturbance hypothesis:
The hypothesis that ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance will favor a higher level of diversity of species than those with high or low disturbance levels.