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level: Key Terms

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Key Terms

Question	Answer
animals that generate their own body heat through metabolism	endotherms
lack an internal mechanism to control body temp and regulate behaviorally	ectotherms
the inherited circuitry that directs and guides behavior	instinct
refers to a change in behavior brought about by an experience	learning
a form of learning that occurs during a brief period of time usually early in an organism's life	imprinting
a window of time when the animal is sensitive to certain aspects of the environment	critical period
occurs when an animal learns not to respond to a stimulus	habituation
internal clocks or cycles	circadian rhythms
chemical signals between members of the same species that stimulate olfactory receptors and ultimately affect behavior	pheromones
an aggressive behavior that occurs as a result of competition fro food or other resources	agonistic behavior
occurs when members in a group have established when members are the most dominant	dominance hierarchies
common behavior when food and nesting sites are in short supply	territoriality
defined as unselfish behavior that benefits another organism in the group at the individual's expense because it advances the genes of the group	altruistic behavior
both organisms win	mutualism
one organism lives off another with no harm to the host organism	commensalism
organism harms its host	parasitism
plants flower in response to changes in the amount of daylight and darkness they receive	photoperiodism
a turning in response to a stimulus	tropism
refers to the way plants respond to sunlight	phototropism
refers to the way plants respond to gravity	gravitropism
refers to the way plants respond to touch	thigmotropism
promote plant growth and phototropism	auxins
promote stem elongation especially in dwarf plants	gibberellins
promote cell division and differentiation	cytokinins
induces leaf abscission and promotes fruit ripening	ethylene
inhibits leaf abscission and promotes bud and seed dormancy	abscisic acid
the study of interactions between living things and their environments	ecology
the entire part of the Earth where living things exist	biosphere
the interaction of living and nonliving things	ecosystem
a group of populations interacting in the same area	commumity
a group of individuals that belong to the same species and that are interbreeding	population
massive area that are classified mostly on the basis of their climates and plant life	biomes
living factors in an ecosystem	biotic factors
nonliving factors in an ecosystem	abiotic factors
carbon's recycling throughout the ecosystem	carbon cycle
a position or function in a community	niche
describes the way different organism depend on one another for food	food chain
have all of the raw building blocks to make their own food	autotrophs
the rate at which autotrophs convert light energy into chemical energy in an ecosystem	primary productivity
the total weight of all the organisms in an area	biomass
forced to find their energy sources in the outside world	heterotrophs
organism that break down organic matter into simple products	decomposers
an organism that is particularly important otay an ecosystem	keystone species
in a food chain only 10% of energy is transferred form one level to the next	10 percent rule
a representation of energy flow, biomass, and number of members within an ecosystem	ecological pyramid
toxins grow increasingly concentrated in a food chain	biomagnification
can be represented as the number of births minus the number of deaths divided by the side of the population	population growth
the maximum number of individuals of a species that a habitat can support	carrying capacity
affect the population regardless of the density of the population	density-independent factor
effects that depend on population density	density- dependent factor
occurs when a population is in an ideal environment	exponential growth
population becomes restricted in size because of limited resources	logistic growth
those who thrive in areas that are barren or uninhabited	r-strategists
organism are best suited for survival in stable environments	k-strategists
the process of ecological succession in which no previous organisms have existed	primary succession
the entire sequence of creating a new ecosystem	sere
the final established community	climax community
when a new community develops where another community has been destroyed or disrupted	secondary succession
atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased by burning fossil fuels	greenhouse effect
pollution has led to depletion of the atmospheric ozone layer by chemicals	ozone depletion
burning fossil fuels produces pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide	acid rain
when land is overgrazed by animals	desertification
when forests are cleared erosion, floods, and changes in weather patterns can occur	deforestation
toxic chemicals in the environment	pollution
as habitats have been destroyed many plants and animals have become extinct	reduction in biodiversity
humans travel and disrupt habitats and bring diseases with them	introduction and spread of disease