Chapter 14

section 1
- A habitat- all of the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where an organism lives. It is
where an organism lives.
- An ecological niche- all the physical, chemical, and biological factors that a species
needs to survive, stay healthy and reproduce. It is how an organism lives within the
habitat.
- Competitive exclusion- when two species are competing for the same resources, one
species will be better suited for the niche, the other will be pushed into another niche or
becomes extinct. Exclusion can have other results- niche partitioning (the resources get
split) or evolutionary response (nature selects one species over the other)
- ecological equivalents are species with the same niche that live in different geographical
areas.
section 2
- competition occurs when two organisms fight for the same limited resource. There are
two types of competition. Interspecific competition occurs when two different species
compete over a resource. Intraspecific competition is when members of the same
species struggle against each other for the same resource.
- predation is the process by which one organism captures and feeds upon another
organism.
- symbiosis is a close relationship between two or more organisms of different species
that live in close contact with each other. There are three major types: mutualism is when
both benefit from the relationship. commensalism is when only one receives a benefit.
parasitism is when one is benefited, the other is harmed. ectoparasites make its home
the exterior of the organism, but endoparasites live in the tissues and organs of a host
where they feed on the nutrient ingested by their host.
section 3
- Population density is a measurement of the number of individuals living in a defined
space.
- population dispersion is the way individuals are spread in an area. clumped dispersion
(individuals live together in groups.) uniform dispersion and random dispersion.
- survivorship curve is a generalized diagram showing the number of surviving showing
the number of surviving members from a measured set of births. ot gives information
about the life history of a species.
section 4
- there are four factors that affect the population size: births, deaths, immigration (the
movement of individuals into a population from another population) and emigration ( the
movement of some individuals of a population into a different one.)
- exponential growth occurs when a population size increases dramatically over a period
of time. it may occur when species move into a previously inhabited area.
- logistic growth happens when a population begins with a period of slow growth followed
by a brief period of exponential growth before leveling off at a stable size that the
environment can support.
 - the carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum number of individuals that it can
support. This changes over time.
- population crash is a dramatic decline in the size of a population over a short period of
time.
- a limiting factor has the greatest effect in keeping down the size of a population. it can
either be density dependent (limiting factors that are affected by the number of
individuals in a given area, such as competition, predation and disease.) or density
independent (limit a population’s growth regardless of the density of the population, such
as unusual weather and natural disasters)
section 5
- succession is the sequence of biotic changes that regenerate a damaged community or
create a community in a previously uninhabited area.
- Primary succession is the establishment of an ecosystem in an uninhabited area. The
organisms that live there first are called pioneer species, such as lichens and mosses.
- secondary succession is the reestablishment of a damaged ecosystem. there is no end
to secondary succession, it is always happening.