ES Ch 5 Vocabulary

Front

What is resilience in an ecosystem?

Back

The ability of an ecosystem to be restored through secondary ecological succession after a severe disturbance.

Front

Define predation.

Back

An interaction in which a member of one species (the predator) captures and feeds on all or part of a living organism of another species (the prey) as part of a food web.

Front

What does logistic growth represent in population dynamics?

Back

A model of population growth that shows how a population grows rapidly at first and then levels off as it approaches the carrying capacity of the environment.

Front

What is range of tolerance?

Back

The range of environmental conditions (such as temperature, humidity, etc.) that a species can withstand.

Front

Define predator.

Back

An organism that captures and feeds on some or all parts of an organism of another species.

Front

What is the difference between mutualism and commensalism?

Back

Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship where both species benefit, while commensalism is a relationship where one species benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.

Front

What is a parasite?

Back

An organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food at the expense of the host.

Front

Explain the concept of carrying capacity.

Back

The maximum number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support sustainably.

Front

What is a survivorship curve?

Back

A graph that represents the number of individuals in a population that survive to different ages.

Front

Define ecological succession.

Back

The process by which ecosystems change and develop over time, often following a disturbance.