AP Environmental Science Review |492 Questions and Answers(A+ Solution guide)

population - composed of all individuals that belong to the same species and live in a given area at a particular time community - incorporates all of the populations of organisms within a given area population ecology - the study of factors that cause populations to increase or decrease population size - the total number of individuals within a defined area at a given time population density - the number of individuals per unit area (or volume for aquatic organisms) at a given time population distriution - a description of how individuals are distributed with respect to one another sex ration - the ratio of males to females age structure - a description of how many individuals fit into particular age categories density-dependent factors - influences an individual's probability of survival and reproduction in a manner that depends on the size of the population limiting resource - a resource that a population cannot live without and which occurs in quantities lower than the population would require to increase in size carrying capacity; k - population growth slowed as population size increased because there was a limit to how many individuals the food supply could sustainDensity-independent factors - have the same effect on an individuals probability of survival and amount of reproduction at any population size