Download Abiotic/Biotic Factor

Moira Viola’s APES Flashcards
Abiotic Factors: Ecosystems that are made
up of non-living things.
Abiotic/Biotic Factor
Qualitative
Observation
Charles Darwin’s
Theory of Natural
Selection
Biotic Factors: Living items in an
ecosystem.
Observations that are made using physical
characteristics (not numbers) to describe
an item.
The process whereby organisms better
adapted to their environment tend to
survive and produce more offspring and is
now believed to be the main process that
brings about evolution.
A place where salt and fresh water mix.
Estuary
Measurement of how much salt is in a
waterway.
Salinity
Ecological/Biological
Footprint
A measure of how much land you
require to live on. The number includes
all food consumed, storage area, and
housing.
Small, usually microscopic plants
(such as algae), found in lakes,
reservoirs, and other bodies of water.
Phytoplankton
Leftover food material from predators
that scavengers usually eat.
Carrion
Aerobic Decomposition: a type of
decomposition that requires oxygen
Aerobic/Anaerobic
Decomposition
Primary/Secondary
Succession
Anaerobic Decomposition: a process in
which microorganisms break down
material in the absence of oxygen.
Primary Succession: A type of ecological
succession that occurs in a virtually lifeless
area, where there were originally no
organisms and where soil has not yet
formed caused by volcanic eruption.
Secondary Succession: Succession
following a disturbance (forest fire,
harvesting, hurricane) that destroys a
community without destroying the soil.
Nitrogen Fixation
Assimilation
The natural process by which nitrogen in
the atmosphere is converted into nitrite by
bacteria.
The natural process by which nitrogen in
the atmosphere is converted into amino
acid by producers.
Transitional zone where two or more
biomes meet.
Ecotone

Examples:
 Local (Forest and Field)
Regional (Forest and Grassland)
The amount or number of people of each
gender at of different age level in a
population.
Age Structure
Triangle: Rapid Growth
Rectangle: Slow Growth
Inverted Triangle: No growth, ZPG
The measure of how many species are in
an area.
Biodiversity
A thick subsurface layer of soil that
remains frozen throughout the year that
allows only small growing plants to
survive in this harsh habitat. (Tundra)
Permafrost
A measurement of population per unit
area.
Population Density
Population = Pop. Density
Area
An area that is drained by a river.
Watershed
Land consisting of marshes or swamps that
is beneficial to fish because they can serve
as breeding grounds.
Wetlands
A giant block of moving ice and common
in the tundra.
Glacier
Areas where the river floods. People build
homes or grow crops in this area.
Flood Plains
A place where the water passes a point in a
given time.
Discharge of a
River
An underground pool of water.
Aquifer
Fun Fact: The largest aquifer in the United
States is the Ogallala aquifer.
The sudden collapse or sinking of an area
of land. It can occur when water is
withdrawn faster than replaced in an
aquifer.
Subsidence
The continuous circulation of water in
systems throughout the planet, involving
condensation, precipitation, runoff,
evaporation, and transpiration.
Water Cycle
A type of energy that dams uses as water
travels past the dams, turning the turbine,
and generating electricity.
Hydroelectricity
A device that helps fish travel upstream
when a dam is in place.
Fish Ladder
In 1932, the Chisso Corporation moved to
Minimata, Japan and began producing
acetaldehyde. A byproduct that was
released into the bay was mercury.
Chisso Corporation
Pollution that occurs when an industry
heats or cools the water.
Thermal Pollution
Point Source of
Pollution
One where you can identify where the
water pollution is coming from. (Opposite
from non-point source)
A type of pollution that decreases
photosynthesis which causes a loss of
oxygen in the waterway.
Sediment Pollution
The lake behind a dam.
Reservoir
Water that has been treated at a water
facility. Reclaimed water is used to water
park grounds, lawns, and golf courses. The
water is not drinkable.
Reclaimed Water
Three Gorges Dams found in Yangtze
River in China
Dams and Rivers
Hoover Dam found in the Colorado River
in the United States
The measure of how many suspended
particles are in a water sample.
Turbidity
The technical and scientific term for poop.

Guano is bird or bat feces.
Feces
The amount of oxygen organisms required
in a five day period.
Biological Oxygen
Demand (B.O.D.)
An organism that break down dead organic
material in the water.
Example: Shrimp
Detritivores
The measure of oxygen in water by the
process of photosynthesis. Phytoplanktons
and algae perform this process.
Dissolved Oxygen
When nitrates and phosphates are placed in
a waterway
Eutrophication
The measurement of the acidity or basicity
of a solution or water.
pH Scale
0 – 6 means the solution is acidic.
8 – 14 mean the solution is basic.
7 means the solution is neutral.
When algae begin to grow rapidly because
of the addition of phosphates and nitrates
in the water.
Algal Bloom
Clean Water Act of
1972
An act that required water polluters of
receive a permit from the EPA before they
can release particles into a waterway and
mandates that all cities must clean their
sewage water up to secondary treatment.
Trawling
Indiscriminant
Method of Catching
Fish
Purse Seine
Drift Net
Long Line
A term that refers to our new ability to
farm fish, by breeding them ourselves, by
using fish farms to supply demands for
fish.
Blue Revolution
The process of physically removing
objects from sewage.
Primary Treatment
for Cleaning Water
Example: grit/settling tank
The process of removing material from
sewage using chemical process.
Secondary
Treatment for
Cleaning Water
Example: Aerobic Bacteria, ozone, UV
light, Chlorine
A disease caused by Shigella bacteria. The
disease causes bloody feces.
Dysentery
A tool that is placed on a fishing net to
allow sea turtles to escape trawl bags.
Exclusion device
The largest type of air pollutant.
Examples: ash, dust, pollen
Particulate Matter
A class of air pollutants that are released
primarily from burning coal. When sulfur
oxide mixes with water in the atmosphere,
the pollutant makes acid rain.
Sulfur Oxides
Secondary
Pollutants
Pollutants that are created when air
pollutants mix in the air to create a new air
pollutant.
Examples: acid rain and photochemical
smog
A natural fuel such as coal, oil or natural
gas, formed in the geological past from the
remains of living organisms
Fossil Fuels
Volatile Organic
Compound
An air pollutant composed of carbon and is
highly reactive with chemicals in the
atmosphere.
Example: Methane
An air pollutant that likes to grow in hot,
humid places where it homes to its many
spores.
Mold
An international agreement in which
countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
The Kyoto Protocol
Greenhouse Gases
Carbon Dioxide
Methane
Water Vapor
Nitrous Oxide
Ozone
An international agreement in which
countries agree to ban the use of ozone
depleting substances.
Montreal Protocol
Chlorofluorocarbon
(CFC)
Environmental
Disasters: Toxic Air
Bhopal, India
Environmental
Disasters: Oil Spill
Exxon Valdez,
Alaska
An organic compound that contains
carbon, chlorine, and fluorine and is used
as aerosol cans and automobile air
conditioning.
On December 2-3, 1984, an explosion
occurred at an India Pesticide Plant. The
plant released a toxic gas called “methyl
isocynate” over the city. The air pollution
contaminated air, water and food supplies.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil
tanker spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude
oil into the Prince William Sound. Winds
and tides moved the oil onto the South and
beaches further south.
Major climatic regions that share similar
temperature and rainfall, and have similar
species worldwide.
Biomes
Examples: grasslands, tropical rainforests,
desert, tundra, chaparral, temperate
deciduous forest, taiga, savannah, estuary,
intertidal zone
Nature of Ecology
Species: a group of interbreeding
organisms that do not ordinarily breed
with members of other groups.
Population: all the individuals of a given
species in an area
Community: all the populations in an area
Earth’s Life Support
Systems
Ecosystem: communities of plants and
animals living in their environments
A life support system is any natural or
human-engineered (constructed or made )
system that furthers the life of the
biosphere in a sustainable fashion
Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Lithosphere
Aerobic/Anaerobic
Respiration
Biosphere
Aerobic Respiration: when oxygen is used
to help convert oxygen to water and
carbon dioxide.
Anaerobic Respiration: also known as
fermentation, breaking down of glucose
without oxygen. Decomposers do
anaerobic respiration
A theory stating that living organisms and
inorganic material are part of a
homeostatic system that helps life to
persist and flourish on Earth.
Gaia Hypothesis
A general pattern of weather conditions on
a specific region in over long periods of
time.
Climate
The temperature, heat, cloudiness, dryness,
sunshine, wind, and rain at a place and
time.
Weather
The steady flow of surface ocean water in
a particular direction.
Ocean Currents
El Nino
El Nino is an abnormal warming of surface
ocean waters in the eastern tropical
Pacific. El Nino happens when weakening
trade winds (which sometimes even
reverse direction) allow the warmer water
from the western Pacific to flow toward
the east. This flattens out the sea level,
builds up warm surface water off the coast
of South America, and increases the
temperature of the water in the eastern
Pacific.
La Nina
La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. La
Niña is the periodic cooling of ocean
surface temperatures in the central and
east-central equatorial Pacific that happens
every 3 to 5 months. The cool water can
suppress rain-producing clouds, which
leads to dry conditions.
A region of blazing heat, cold-bearing
nights, little vegetation, and little water.
Desert Biome
Savannah Biome
(Tropical
Grasslands)
Temperate
Grassland Biome
A region filled with many scattered trees
and many herds of hoofed animals
A region filled with fertile soil, many
crops, and grazing cattle and has very cold
winters and hot, dry summers all year
long.
Chaparral/
Mediterranean
Biome
Tropical Rainforest
Biome
Also known as temperate shrublands
Regions with a moderate climate with
dense thickets of very spiny shrubs and
trees.
A region near the equator and have humid
air and heavy rainfall. This biome has a
heavily diverse ecosystem.
A region of subarctic, evergreen
coniferous forest located in northern
Eurasia.
Taiga
A region with high elevation areas with
snow-covered peaks.
Mountain Biome
Species
Interaction
Thomas Malthus’
Hypothesis
Parasitism: the relation between two
different kinds of organisms in which one
receives benefits from the other by causing
damage to it
Mutualism: Symbiosis that is beneficial to
both organisms involved.
Commensalism: An association between
two organisms in which one benefits and
the other derives neither benefit nor harm.
Thomas Malthus was a British economist.
His hypothesis states that the human
population will grow exponentially over
time and food production will be
insufficient because food production grows
only linearly.
Pre-Industrial – high birth and death rate
Demographic
Transition Stages
Transitional – industrialization begins
Industrial – population growth slows down
Post-Industrial – pop. growth reaches ZPG