Define
What is an Ecologist?
A scientist who studies ecology, they look at how all the biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem are related.
How organisms react and respond to changes in their environment.
How they are constantly interacting with their surroundings.
Means moving into a population
Immigration
The process of change and diversification of living things over time.
Evolution
The behaviors and physical characteristics of species that allow them to live successfully in their environment are called?
Adaptations
The struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources is described as.
Competition
Define Population Density and what is its equation?
The size of a population; the number of individuals in a specific area.
Population density= # of individuals/ unit of area
Means leaving a population.
Emigration
True or false: Natural selection acts on the population and not the individual.
FALSE
NATURAL SELECTION ACTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL
EVOLUTION ACTS ON THE POPULATION
What are the 3 major interactions among organisms?
Competition, predation, and symbiosis.
Parasitism involves?
one organism living on or inside another organism and harming it.
What are limiting factors and give examples.
An environmental factor that prevents a population from increasing.
Example: Food, Space, Weather conditions
What is a Carnivore?
A consumer who eats animals/meat.
The term made famous in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which suggested that organisms best adjusted to their environment are the most successful in surviving and reproducing.
"Survival of the fittest".
What is predation? What is a predator? and what is a prey?
Predation- interaction between two organisms in which one organism kills and eats another.
Predator- the organism that does the killing.
Prey- the organism that is killed.
What is the difference between parasite and host?
Parasite- the organism that benefits from the interaction.
Host- the organism a parasite lives on or in and is harmed.
Parasites are usually smaller than a host.
What is estimation?
An approximation of a number based on reasonable assumption.
What is natural selection?
The changes that make an organism better suited to their environments.
Over generations, populations of organisms accumulate heritable changes (modifications) in their traits due to processes like?
Mutations, sexual reproduction, and natural selection.
Claws, sharp teeth, stingers, poisonous substances, speed, big eyes, and echo location are examples of?
Predator adaptations
________ is a close relationship between organisms from different species, that usually benefits one or both of the individuals involved. It can be 1. _________, where both parties benefit, or 2. __________, where one benefits while the other is harmed, or 3. _______________, where one species benefit, and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
Symbiosis
1. Mutualistic, where both parties benefit.
2. Parasitic, where one benefits while the other is harmed.
3. Commensalism, where one species benefit, and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
Define "Heterotroph" and what are they also known as?
An organism that cannot produce its own food. Also known as Consumers.
What is Commensalism?
A relationship in which one species benefits, and the other species is neither helped nor harmed.
Not very common in nature because 2 species are usually either helped or harmed a little by any interaction.
Who defined evolution as "decent with modification" and what is it?
Darwin defined evolution as "descent with modification", the idea that species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor.
Camouflage, warning coloration, mimicry, spines/shells/quills, herding behaviors, alarm calls are examples of?
Prey adaptations
How does natural selection work?
Individuals in a population have different characteristics.
Those individuals whose characteristics are best suited for their environment tend to survive and produce offspring. The offspring that inherited the characteristics that made their parents successful will also live to reproduce.
Individuals that are poorly suited to the environment are less likely to survive and reproduce, over time they are their characteristics may disappear from the population.