Introduction to Ecology
What is the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings?
What is Ecology?
A relationship where one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
What is Commensalism?
The gradual process of change and replacement in the species composition of a community over time.
What is ecological succession?
This process removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
What is photosynthesis?
This type of growth model includes the limiting effects of carrying capacity.
What is Logistic Growth?
What is the primary source of energy for most ecosystems?
What is the sun?
A relationship where both species benefit.
What is mutualism?
This type of succession begins in an area where an existing ecosystem has been disturbed but soil remains.
What is secondary succession?
The largest active carbon reservoir on Earth is found in this.
What is the ocean?
This is the maximum population size an environment can sustain.
What is Carrying Capacity?
What is a relationship in which one species benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed?
What is commensalism?
The type of competition between two organisms of the same species.
What is Intraspecific Competition?
A stable, mature ecological community that has reached the final stage of succession.
What is a climax community?
This process involves bacteria converting nitrogen gas into usable compounds.
What is nitrogen fixation?
If a population grows larger than the carrying capacity of the environment, this is likely to happen to the population size.
What is death rate will rise/birth rate will fall?
What is the term for water leaving a plant through small openings called stomata?
What is transpiration?
An organism that is killed and eaten by another.
What is a prey?
These are the first organisms to colonize a barren environment, such as bare rock.
What are lichens and mosses?
This is the primary component of Earth's atmosphere, unusable by most living things until fixed.
What is Nitrogen?
These are the four primary factors that determine population size.
What are Births, Deaths, Immigration, and Emigration?
What is the process of breaking down chemical bonds in dead plant and animal tissues to release nutrients?
What is the decomposition?
Any resource that limits the size of a population.
What is a Limiting Factor?
: This type of natural disturbance can actually help some forest communities by clearing away dead wood.
What is a forest fire?
This force drives the water cycle.
What is the sun?
This type of distribution, often caused by territoriality, is rarely found in nature.
What is Uniform Distribution?