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53 Cards in this Set
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ecology
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the study of the relationships of organisms to their environment and to other organisms / helps us understand why animals live where they do and eat certain foods
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habitat
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animal's environment / includes all living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) characteristics of an area
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abiotic components
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availability of oxygen and inorganic ions, light, temperature, current/wind
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tolerance range
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a certain range of values that animals live in
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range of optimimum
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the conditions under which an animal is most successful
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limiting factor
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an abiotic factor that is out of an animal's tolerance range
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taxis
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when an animal orients itself relative to an abiotic factor / Example: if an animal favors well-lighted environments and moves toward a light source
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energy
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the ability to do work
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hetrotrophic energy
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the type of nutrition in which organisms derive energy from the oxidation of organic compounds either by consumption or absorption of other organisms
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autotrophic energy
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organisms(plants and algae) carry on photosynthesis or oother carbon-fixing activites that supply their food source
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energy budget
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an accouting of an animal's total energy intake and a description of how that energy is used and lost
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temperature
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most of animal's is existance is spent regulating body temperature
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torpor
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a time of decreated metabolism and lower body temperature that occurs daily in bats, hummingbirds and some small birds who must feed constantly when they are active
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hibernation
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a time of decreased metabolism and lower body temerature that may last for weeks or months
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winter sleep
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occurs in some larger animals, no lower body temperature / large energy reserves sustain animals through out inactivity
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aestivation
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a period of inactivity in some animals that must withstand extended periods of drying / common to many invertebrates, reptitles, amphibans
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surviorship curves
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plots of the number of survivors versus age
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surviorship curves type I
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applies to poplulations in which invidividuals are likely to live out their potential life span
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surviorship curves type II
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applies to poplulations in which imortality rates are constant throughout age classes
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surviorship curves type III
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applies to population in which mortality rates are highest for the youngest cohorts
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population growth
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the population increases by the same ratio per unit of time
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exponential growth
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the population increases by the same ratio, cannot happen indefintely
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environmental resistance
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constraints that climate, food, space, and other environmental facotrs place on a population
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carrying capacity
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the population size that a particular environment can support
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density-independent factors
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inflence the number of animals ina population without regard to the number of individuals per unit space (density) / Example: weather conditions often limit population and human activities - constructions/deforest
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density-dependant factors
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more severe when population denisty is high / animals use territorial behavior to tell other animals to look somewhere else
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competition
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occurs when animals utilize similar resources and in some way interfere with each other's procurrement of those resources
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intraspecific competition
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competition among members of the same species
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interspecific competition
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when members of different species compete for resources / may force the other to go extinct
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interspecific interactions
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includes herbivory, predation, competition, coevolution, and symbiosis
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herbivory
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animals that feed on plants by cropping portions of the plant, but usually not killing the plant
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predation
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predators feed by killing and eating other organisms
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coevolution
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the evolution of ecologically related species is sometimes coordinated such that each species exerts a strong selective influence on each other
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symbiosis
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"together life" two different species living in continuting, intimate assoications
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parasitism
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common form of symbiosis in which one organism lives in or on a second organism called a host
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commensalism
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a symbiotic relationship in which one member of the relationship benefits and the second is neither helped nor harmed
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mutualism
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a symbiotic relationship that benefits both members
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camouflage
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occurs when an animal's color patterns help hide the animal from another animal
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countershading
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a kind of camouflage common in frog and toad eggs - eggs dardly pigmented on top and lightly pigmented on the bottom
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aposematic coloration
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"away from sign" - coral snakes, skunks
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mimicry
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"to imitate" occurs when a species resembles one or sometimes more than one other species and gains protection by the resemblance
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community
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all populations living in an area
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ecological niche
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the niche of any species includes all the attributes of animal's lifestyple: where it looks for food, what it eats, where it nests, etc.
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ecological succession
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the sequence of community types during the maturation of an ecosystem
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pioneer species
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the first species to inhabit an area
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seral stage
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a successional stage in an ecosystem
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climax community
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a final, relatively stable stage in an ecological succesion
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ecosystem
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communities and their physical environment
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food chain
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the sequence of organisms through which energy moves in an ecosystem
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food web
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complexly interconnected food chains
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autotrophs
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producers that obtain nutrition from inorganic materials and an energy source / they form the first level
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pyramid of energy
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how energy is passed from sun to producers - herbivores - carnivores
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first trophic level
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plants / producers / autotrophs
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