AP Biology Vocabulary - Mr. Pate 2023

Physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem.

The distribution of individuals among different ages in a population.

The diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole).

The part of the earth, including air, land, surface rocks, and water, within which life occurs.

A major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate.

Biological influence on organisms within an ecosystem.

Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support.

All the different populations that live together in an area.

Limiting factor that depends on population size.

The rate at which producers in an ecosystem capture energy.

The rate at which biomass accumulates in an ecosystem.

The place where an organism lives.

Continuous flow of nutrients into and out of stores in the ecosystem; balanced, unless disturbed by human activity.

Organisms compete for the limited number of biotic and abiotic factors.

In a community competition for resources between members of different species.

In a community competition for resources among members of the same species.

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Selection for life history traits that are sensitive to population density.

Selection for life history traits that maximize reproductive success in uncrowded environments.

Growth pattern in which a population's growth rate slows or stops following a period of exponential growth.

Growth pattern in which the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate.

A group of similar organisms whose members can mate with one another and produce fertile offspring.

A species that is critical to the functioning of the ecosystem in which it lives because it affects the survival and abundance of many other species in its community.

An organism that lives on or in a host and causes harm to the host.

Organism that uses energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water to carbon compounds.

A group of organisms of the same species populating a given area.

The increasing and decreasing of a population.

Undesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities.

An organism that eats producers.

An organism that eats primary consumers.

Any of a group of small, usually rectangular plots of land arranged for close study of the distribution of plants or animals in an area.

Birth rate minus the death rate, suggesting the annual rate of population growth without considering net migration.

An organism's particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes its living.

Diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter within each trophic level in a food chain or food web.

Step in the movement of energy through an ecosystem; an organism's feeding status in an ecosystem.

The general observation that only ten percent of energy available at one trophic level is actually passed up to the next.

The percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next.

The gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established.

Collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment.

Any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms.

The periodic passage of groups of animals (especially birds or fishes) from one region to another for feeding or breeding.

Death rate in a population; the probability of dying.

Symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship.

A plot of the number of members of a cohort (group) that are still alive at each age (one way to represent age-specific mortality).

An organism that provides a source of energy or a suitable environment for a virus or for another organism to live.

The living in a mutually helpful association of two dissimilar organisms.

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected.

The process by which water is lost through a plant's leaves.