ecology - Answers study of interactions among organisms and their environment
biotic interactions - Answers interactions among living things
abiotic interactions - Answers interactions that are between organisms and their nonliving environment
environmental science - Answers application of ecology to real world problems
organismal ecology includes what two subdisiplines - Answers physiological ecology and behavioral
ecology
physiological ecology - Answers investigates how organisms are physiologically adapted to their
envrionment
behavioral ecology - Answers investigates how individual behavior contributes to survival and
reproductive success
population ecology - Answers focuses on groups of interbreeding individuals called populations
what is the goal of population ecology? - Answers to understand factors affecting population growth,
density and size
what types of studies of interactions between species does population ecology include? - Answers
predation, competition, and parasitism
community ecology studies what? - Answers how populations of species interact and form functional
communities and focuses on why some areas are species-rich while others are species-poor
succession - Answers how species composition and community structure change over time, particularly
after disturbance
(something else community ecology studies)
ecosystems ecology studies - Answers the flow of energy and cycling of chemical elements among
organisms within a community and between organisms and the environment
trophic levels - Answers levels in food chains
food chains may interconnect forming - Answers food webs
an organism's habitat is the - Answers specific environment it lives in and includes the biotic and abiotic
factors of its surroundings
biosphere - Answers basically the global habitat or the sum of all of the planet's life and where it lives
the distribution of life on the planet varies on both a - Answers global scale and a local scale
, both distribution pattern and abundance of a species are limited by physical features of the
environment such as: - Answers temperature, wind, availability of water and light, salinity, and pH
biome - Answers a major aquatic or terrestrial life zone, characterized by the physical environment in
aquatic biomes or vegetation type in terrestrial biomes
aquatic biomes - Answers occupy roughly 75% of the Earth's surface and are determined by their salinity
and other physical factors
freshwater biomes - Answers have a salt concentration of less than 1% and include lakes, streams,
rivers, and wetlands
-cover less than 1% of Earth and are used for drinking water, crop irrigation, etc.
marine biomes - Answers typically have a salt concentration around 3% and include oceans, intertidal
zones, coral reefs and estuaries
freshwater biomes fall into what two broad groups - Answers 1. standing water, which includes lakes
and ponds
2. flowing water, such as rivers and streams
in lakes and large ponds, the communities of plants, algae, and animals are distributed according to the -
Answers -depth of water and
-distance from shore
photic zone - Answers named because light is available for photosynthesis, it includes the shallow water
near shore and the upper layer of water away from shore
aphotic zone - Answers deeper than the photic zone and has light levels too low to support
photosynthesis
benthic realm - Answers at the bottom of all aquatic biomes and is made up of sand and organic and
inorganic sediments and is occupied by communities of organisms that are collectively called benthos
rivers and streams are bodies of water flowing in one direction and generally support quite different
communities of organisms than - Answers lakes and ponds
in rivers and streams, near the source of a stream, the water is usually - Answers clear, cold, swift and
low in nutrients
in rivers and streams, downstream, the water is usually - Answers murkier, warmer, slower, and higher
in nutrients
a wetland is a transitional biome between - Answers an aquatic ecosystem and a terrestrial one