Word List pages 3&4: WORD BANK FOR QUIZ #2

abiotic factor: Abiotic factors are the nonliving parts of an organism's habitat.
Acclimation: Change in physiology or form of an organism in response to changes in environmental conditions
(adjustment to abiotic factor)
Adapted: Changed to survive or fit into new conditions
Adaptive radiation: The diversification of a group of organisms into forms filling different ecological niches.
alien species: type of species that humans have introduced to an area where it does not naturally occur
Allele: One of the alternative forms of a gene that governs a characteristic, such as hair color
Annual: Yearly
Aquaculture: The cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions
Autotrophs: Organisms that make their own food (producers)
Background extinction: normal extinction of various species as a result of changes in local environmental conditions
Ballast: heavy substance used to add stability or weight (supply with ballast)
Barrier island: a long, relatively narrow island running parallel to the mainland-built up by the action of waves and
currents and serving to protect the coast from erosion by surf and tidal surges.
Benthic: bottom of an aquatic ecosystem; consists of sand and sediment and supports its own community of organisms
Biodiversity: The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat
diversity and genetic diversity.
Biomass: the total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.
Biome: A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms
Biosphere: part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere
Breeding: producing offspring
Carnivores: Meat eaters
carrying capacity: Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support
Catastrophic: involving or causing sudden great damage
CITES treaty: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. In 1989, participating countries agreed to ban
the sale of endangered species and their body parts.

Climate: The average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time
Coastal wetland: a flat-lying coastal area that floods during high tide and drains during low tide, and hosts salt-resistant
plants
Commensalism: A relationship between two organisms of different species where one benefits and the other is neither
harmed nor benefited
Commercial breeding: Breeding animal and plants for commercial significance, such as breeding dogs
Commercial harvesting: The harvesting of animals or cash crops for commercial reasons.
Community: A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
Competitive exclusion principle: Ecological rule that states that no two species can occupy the same exact niche in the
same habitat at the same time
Conifer: a tree that bears cones and needle-like or scale-like leaves that are typically evergreen. Conifers are of major
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importance as the source of softwood, and also supply resins and turpentine
Constancy: the tendency to perceive certain objects in the same way regardless of changing angle, distance, or lighting
Consumers: An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.
Coral reefs: The most diverse marine biome on Earth, found in warm, shallow waters beyond the shoreline
Deciduous: (of plants and shrubs) shedding foliage at the end of the growing season
Decomposers: organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return raw materials to the environment
Detritus feeders: Organism that extracts nutrients from fragments of dead organism and their cast-off parts and organic
wastes
Differential reproduction: Phenomenon in which individuals with adaptive genetic traits produce more living offspring than
do individuals without such traits.
Doubling time: The number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase.
Dynamic state of equilibrium: A steady state found in an ecosystem or an system where change is not observed because
while there are changes in progress they are not observable because they are balanced
Early successional species: Species that can grow rapidly in disturbed conditions and therefore are the first to dominate
in primary or secondary succession.
Ecology: Scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment
Ecosystem: A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment
Ecotone: The transition from one type of habitat or ecosystem to another, such as the transition from a forest to a
grassland.
Edge effect: the condition in which, at ecosystem boundaries, there is greater species diversity and biological density
than there is in the heart of ecological communities.

Endangered: being seriously in danger of extinction

energy cycle:
Epiphyte: an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain,
water or from debris accumulating around it
Estuaries: the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream.
Eutrophic: when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive
growth of algae.
Evergreen: a plant that retains green leaves throughout the year.
exotic species: species of plants or animals that are growing in a nonnative environment.
exponential curve: a specific way that a quantity may increase over time
exponential growth: Exponential growth is a specific way that a quantity may increase over time
extinction: the state or process of a species, family, or larger group being or becoming extinct.
fertility: the quality of being fertile
fisheries: area or fishing ground where fish are commonly caught
fluctuations:an irregular rising and falling in number or amount
flyways: a route regularly used by large numbers of migrating birds
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food web: a system of interlocking and independent chains

PM10: Particular matter 10 micrometers or less in diameter
precipitators: an apparatus for causing precipitation
primary pollutant: an air pollutant emitted directly from the source
radon: the chemical element of atómic number 86, a rare radioactive gas
Reasonably Available Control Technology:
relative humidity: the amount of water vapor present in air expressed as a percentage of the amount needed for
saturation
Saffir/Simpson: hurricane wind scale

scrubbers
secondary pollutant
Sick building syndrome
smog-industrial
smog-photochemical
spectrum
stack emissions
storm surge
stratosphere
sulfur oxides
suspended particulate matter (SPM)
temperature inversions
tornado
tropical depression
troposphere
turbulence
typhoon, monsoon
UV radiation
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's)
vortex
wind