Chapter 11: Ecology

Animals that generate their own body heat through metabolism.

Animals that lack an internal mechanism to control body temperature.

Inborn, unlearned behavior.

A change in behavior brought about by an experience.

When offspring accept the first moving object they see as their mother in the absence of their actual mother.

A window of time when the animal is sensitive to certain aspects of the environment during imprinting.

When an animal learns not to respond to a stimulus.

Internal clocks or cycles that occur in animals and plants.

Chemical signals between members of the same species that affect behavior.

Aggressive behavior that occurs due to competition for resources.

A social structure in which members of a group establish the most dominant members.

A behavior that occurs when food and nesting sites are scarce.

Unselfish behavior that benefits another organism in the group at the individual's expense.

A symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits without harming the other.

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism harms the other.

A turning in response to a stimulus

The way plants respond to sunlight

The way plants respond to gravity

The way plants respond to touch

The study of interactions between living things and their environments

The entire part of the Earth where living things exist

The interaction of living and nonliving things

A group of populations interacting in the same area

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and that are interbreeding.

The total amount of organic matter produced by photosynthesis in an ecosystem.

The amount of organic matter produced by photosynthesis in an ecosystem, minus the amount used by the producers for their own cellular energy needs.

A species that has a disproportionately large impact on its ecosystem relative to its abundance.

Only about 10% of the energy available at one trophic level is transferred to the next level.

A diagram that shows the amount of living organic matter at each trophic level in an ecosystem.

A diagram that shows the number of individual organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem.

A diagram that shows the amount of energy available at each trophic level in an ecosystem.

Harmful substances that can accumulate in the tissues of organisms.

The process by which toxins become more concentrated in the tissues of organisms at higher trophic levels.

The increased risk of harm to animals at higher trophic levels due to the concentration of toxins in their tissues.

The predictable procession of plant communities over a relatively short period of time (decades or centuries).