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SEMESTER 2 BIOLOGY
VOCABULARY
Peyton Mogley
AND
Christie Bergesch
 1.Algal Bloom: An immediate increase in the amount of
algae and other producers that results from a large input of
a limiting nutrient.

2.Autotrophs: Organisms that capture energy from the
sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce it's own food
from inorganic materials.

3.Biogeochemical Cycle: Process in which elements,
chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed
from one organism to another and from one part of the
biosphere to another.

4.Biomass: The total amount of living tissue within a given
tropic level.

5.Biome: Group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar
dominant communities.

6.Biosphere: Contains the combined portions of the planet in which all of
life exists, including land, water, and air (atmosphere)

7.Carnivore: Eats animals.

8.Chemosynthesis: Process by which some organisms, such as certain
bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates.

9.Community: Assemblage of different populations that live together in a
defined area.

10.Consumer: Heterotrophic organism that feeds on other organisms in a
food chain

11.Decomposer: Breaks down organic matter.
 12.Denitrification: Conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas.
13.Detritivore: Feeds on plants and animal remains (dead
matter)

14.Ecological Pyramid: Diagram that shows the relative
amounts of energy or matter contained within each tropic level in
a food chain or food web.

15.Ecology: The scientific study of interactions among organisms
and between organisms and their environment, or surroundings.

16.Ecosystem: A collection of all the organisms that live in a
particular place together with their nonliving, or physical,
environment.
CHAPTER 3 VOCAB

17.Evaporation: The process by which water changes from liquid form to an
atmospheric gas.

18.Food Chain: A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating
and being eaten.

19.Food Web: Network of complex interactions formed by the feeding
relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem.

20.Herbivore: Obtains energy by eating only plants.

21.Heterotroph: Organism that relies on other organisms for their energy and
food supply.

22.Limiting Nutrient: Single nutrient that either is scarce or cycles very slowly,
limiting the growth of organisms in an ecosystem.
 1.abiotic factor: nonliving or physical factors that shape an
ecosystem

2.biotic factor: biological influences on organisms within an
ecosystem

3.commensalism: symbiotic relationship in which one member
of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor
harmed

4.ecological succession: series of predictable changes that
occurs in a community over time

5.mutualism: symbiotic relationship in which both species
benefit from the relationship
 6.niche: the ecological "job and address" of a plant or animal in
nature.

7.parasitism: symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives
in or on another organism (the host) and consequently harms it

8.pioneer species: first species to populate an area during
primary succession

9.predation: interaction in which one organism captures and
feeds on another organism

10.primary succession: succession that occurs on surfaces where
no soil exists
 11.resource: any necessity of life, such as
water, nutrients, light, food, or space

12.secondary succession: succession
following a disturbance that destroys a
community without destroying the soil

13.symbiosis: relationship in which two
species live closely together
 1. age-structure diagram: graph of the numbers of males and
females within different age groups of a population

2.biodiversity: biological diversity; the sum total of the variety of
organisms in the biosphere

3.biological magnification: increasing concentration of a
harmful substance in organisms at higher tropic levels in a food
chain or food web

4.carrying capacity: largest number of individuals of a
population that a given environment can support

5.demographic transition: change in a population from high
birth and death rates to low birth and death rates
 6.demography: scientific study of human populations

7.density-dependent limiting factor: limiting factor that
depends on population size

8.density-independent limiting factor: limiting factor that
affects all populations in similar ways, regardless of
population size

9.emigration: movement of individuals out of a population

10.exponential growth: growth pattern in which the
individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate
 11.green revolution: introduction of intensive farming practices
that lead to a substantial increase in crop yields

12.immigration: movement of individuals into an area occupied
by an existing population

13.invasive species: plants and animals that have migrated to
places where they are not native

14.limiting factor: factor that causes the growth of a population
to decrease

15.logistic growth: growth pattern in which a population's
growth rate slows or stops following a period of exponential
growth

16.monoculture: farming strategy in which large fields are cleared, plowed, and
planted with a single, highly productive crop year after year

17.nonrenewable resources: resource that cannot be replenished by natural
processes

18.population: group of individuals of the same species that live in the same
area

19.population density: number of individuals per unit of area

20.predator-prey relationship: mechanism of population control in which a
population is regulated by predation

21.renewable resources: resource that can regenerate quickly and that is
replaceable

22.species: group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile off
springs

1. Anticodon: Group of 3 bases on a tRNA molecule that are
complementary to an mRNA codon

2.Bacteriophage: Virus that infects bacteria.

3.Base Pairing: Principle that bonds in DNA can form only
between A - T and C-G.

4.Chromatin: Protein molecule that DNA is tightly coiled around.

5.Codon: Three nucleotide sequence on mRNA that codes for a
single amino acid.
chain.
CHAPTER 12 VOCAB
 6.DNA polymerase: Enzyme that "proofreads" new DNA
strands, helping to ensure perfect copies.

7.Exons: expressed sequence of DNA; codes for a protein.

8.Frameshift mutations: Mutation that shifts the "reading"
frame by inserting or deleting a nucleotide.

9.Histones: DNA wrapped around proteins.

10.Introns: intervening sequence of DNA; does not code for
a protein.
CHAPTER 12 VOCAB
 11.Messenger RNA: RNA molecule that carries instructions
for the assembly of amino acids.

12.Nucleotides: Piece of the DNA strand that is made of a
sugar, phosphate and a nitrogenous base

13.Point mutations: Mutation that affects a single
nucleotide by substitution.

14.polyploidy: having extra sets of chromosomes.

15.Promoters: enzyme that binds to DNA and separates
the DNA strands to make RNA.
CHAPTER 12 VOCAB


16.Replication: copying process by which a cell duplicates its DNA
17.Ribosomal RNA: type of RNA that makes up the major part of ribosome's.

18.RNA polymerase: change in a DNA sequence that affects genetic
information.

19.Transcription: Process in which part of the sequence of DNA is copied.

20.Transfer RNA: type of RNA molecule which transfers amino acids to
ribosomes.

21.Transformation: Process in which one strand of bacteria is changed by a gene
or genes.

22.Translation: decoding of a mRNA message into a polypeptide
CHAPTER 15 VOCAB

1. Adaptation: inherited characteristic that increases an
organism chance of survival.

2. Artificial selection: selection by human for breeding of useful
traits from the natural variation among different organisms.

3.Common descent: principle that all living things derived from
common ancestors.

4. Descent with modification: principle that each living species
has descended, with changes, from other species over time.

5. Evolution: change in a kind of organism over times: process by
which modern organisms have descended from ancient
organisms.
CHAPTER 15 VOCAB

6.Fitness: ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment.

7. Fossil: preserved remains or evidence of an ancient organism.

8.Homologuous structure: structures that have different mature forms in
different organisms but develop from the same embryonic tissues.

9. Struggle for existence: competition among members of a species for food,
living space, and the other necessities of life.

10. Survival of the fittest: process by which individuals that are better suited to
their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; ALSO CALLED
NATURAL SELECTION.

11. Theory: well-test explanation that unifies a board range of observations.

12. Vestigial organ: organ that serves no useful function in an organism.
Chapter 17

Paleontologists: are scientists who study fossils.

Fossil Record: all the information about past life.

Extinct: the species died out.
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Relative Dating: the age of fossil is determines by comparing its placement with that of fossils in other layers of rock.

Index Fossils: compare the relative ages of fossils.

Half-Life: the length if time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay.

Radioactive Dating: the use of half-lives to determine the age of a sample.

Geologic Time Scale: to represent evolutionary time.
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Eras: they are the Paleozoic Era, the Mesozoic Era, and the Genozoic Era.

Period: range in length from tens of millions of years to less than two million years.

Proteinoid Microsphere: under certain conditions, large organic molecules can form tiny bubbles.

Microfossils: unicellular prokaryotic organisms that resemble modern bacteria have been found in rocks more than 3.5 billion years old.

Endosymbiotic Theory: eukaryotic cells formed from a symbiosis among several different prokaryotic organisms.

Mass Extinction: at the end of the Paleozoic, many organisms died out. Which many types of living things became at the same time.

Macroevolution: to refer to large –scale evolutionary patterns and processes that occur over long periods of time.

Adaptive Radiation: fossils or living organisms show that a single speces ora small group of species has evolved, through natural selection
and other processes, into diverse forms that live in different ways.

Convergent Evolution: which unrelated organisms come to resemble one another.

Coevolution: which two species evolve in response to changes in each other over time.

Punctuated Equilibrium: describe this pattern of long, stable period interrupted by brief periods of more rapid change.