Question 1

What is ecology?

Accepted Answer

The study of interactions between living things and their environments

Question 2

What is a species?

Accepted Answer

A group of similar individuals that are able to reproduce together

Question 3

What is a population?

Accepted Answer

A group of organisms belonging to the same species that interact with each other

Question 4

What is a community?

Accepted Answer

A group of populations, from different species, interacting in the same area

(biotic factors only)

Question 5

What is an ecosystem?

Accepted Answer

All populations interacting with abiotic factors

(consists of biotic and abiotic factors)

Question 6

What is a biome?

Accepted Answer

A massive area with similar climate and plant life

Question 7

What is a biosphere?

Accepted Answer

The entire part of the earth where living things exist

Question 8

What are biotic factors?

Accepted Answer

Living organisms and factors in an ecosystem

(other individuals, diseases, etc.)

Question 9

What are abiotic factors?

Accepted Answer

Nonliving factors

(water, humidity, temperature, etc.)

Question 10

What is the carbon cycle?

Accepted Answer

The process of how carbon is recycled throughout an ecosystem

Question 11

What is a niche?

Accepted Answer

A position or function in a community

(example: animals that hunt for prey on plants; when two organisms occupy the same niche, they will compete for recources)

Question 12

What is a food chain?

Accepted Answer

A series of organisms that are dependant on the next for food

Question 13

What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?

Accepted Answer

A food chain follows a specific path of energy

A food web shows the interaction of multiple food chains

Question 14

What are producers/autotrophs?

Accepted Answer

An organism that can synthesize its own food

(doesn't rely on eating other organisms; most plants are autotrophs)

Question 15

What is primary productivity?

Accepted Answer

The rate at which autotrophs convert light energy into chemical energy

Question 16

What are chemosynthetic autotrophs?

Accepted Answer

Autotrophs that get energy from chemical reactions, rather than the sun

(these autotrophs are very rate)

Question 17

What is biomass?

Accepted Answer

The total weight of organisms in an area

Question 18

What are consumers/heterotrophs?

Accepted Answer

Organisms that consume other organisms for energy

(scientifically, they digest the carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids of their prey into their own body, which they use to make organic substances)

Question 19

What are primary consumers?

Accepted Answer

Organisms that feed directly on producers

(cows)

Question 20

What are secondary consumers?

Accepted Answer

Organisms that consume primary consumers

Question 21

What are tertiary consumers?

Accepted Answer

Organisms at the top of the food web that consume secondary consumers

Question 22

What are decomposers?

Accepted Answer

Organisms that break down organic matter, often from dead animals/plants

(fungi and bacteria)

Question 23

What are keystone species?

Accepted Answer

A species that is particularly important in an ecosystem

Removing this species can unbalance the entire ecosystem

Question 24

What is the 10% rule?

Accepted Answer

The tendency of only about 10% of energy being transferred from one trophic level to the next

(the other 90% is used in activities such as breathing, reproduction, scavenging, and escaping predators)

Question 25

What is an ecological pyramid?

Accepted Answer

A graphical representation of different organisms in an ecosystem

Question 26

What is bioaccumulation?

Accepted Answer

An individual organism accumulating (harmful) substances

(fish slowly absorbing chemicals)

Question 27

What is biomagnification?

Accepted Answer

Organisms in higher trophic levels having higher concentrations of toxins

Question 28

What is biodiversity?

Accepted Answer

Variety of life in an ecosystem or habitat

Question 29

What is interconnectedness?

Accepted Answer

An ecosystem being closely connected, causing a small change to affect everything

Question 30

What is Simpson's Diversity Index (SDI)?

Accepted Answer

A measure of how diverse an ecosystem is

Closer to 1 = more diverse

= Diversity index;  = Number of individuals for each species;  = Total number of individuals

Question 31

What is population growth?

Accepted Answer

How much a population grows, often as a percent

(the number of births minus the number of deaths, divided by the size of the population)

Question 32

What is carrying capacity?

Accepted Answer

The maximum number of individuals (in a specific species) that a habitat can support

(most populations don't reach their carrying capacity, due to limiting factors)

Question 33

What are limiting factors?

Accepted Answer

Factors that constrain a population's maximum size (carrying capacity)

(competition, amount of food, etc.)

Question 34

What are density-independent factors?

Accepted Answer

Factors that affect populations, regardless of the density of the population

(storms/natural-disasters affect both small and large populations)

Question 35

What are density-dependent factors?

Accepted Answer

Factors that have different effects depending on population density

(diseases are worse in populations with a higher density)

Question 36

What is exponential growth?

Accepted Answer

The way a population grows when it is not (yet) constrained by limiting factors

Question 37

What is logistic growth?

Accepted Answer

Population growth that is restricted, due to limiting factors

Question 38

What is r/K selection theory?

Accepted Answer

The selection of organisms with either a high "quantity" of offspring, or a high "quality" of offspring

Question 39

What is the difference between r-strategists and K-strategists?

Accepted Answer

r-strategists have lots of offspring that grow quickly (mice)

K-strategists have few offspring that grow slowly (elephants, whales)

Question 40

What are the pros and cons of being an r or K strategist?

Accepted Answer

r-strategists can recover from overhunting and can quickly colonize an area, but have lots of competition

K-strategists have little competition, but are susceptible to overhunting and rapid environmental changes

Question 41

What is ecological succession?

Accepted Answer

The predictable change in a community of plants over time

Question 42

What is primary succession?

Accepted Answer

The process of organisms colonizing a land where no organisms previously existed

(this can happen after volcanic eruptions, when new land is formed)

Question 43

What are pioneer organisms?

Accepted Answer

Organisms that turn an uninhabitated area into a slightly more inhabited area

(lichens are pioneer organisms, turning bare rocks into slightly less bare rocks)

Question 44

What is a sere?

Accepted Answer

A stage in an ecosystem that is going through ecological succesion

Question 45

What is a climax community?

Accepted Answer

The final stage of ecological succession, with a stable ecosystem

(climax communities can still be destroyed by fires or human activity)

Question 46

What is secondary succession?

Accepted Answer

A type of ecological succession where organisms recolonize a destroyed habitat

Ecology, AP Biology Flashcards