APES everything

• Ecosystem


  The interaction of living and nonliving things in a specific region
• Habitat


  The given environmental conditions that a certain species needs in order to survive
• Environment


  The entire natural world
• Organism relationships


  • Competition
  • Symbiosis
  • Mutualism
  • Parasitism
• Mutualism


  • Bees and the plants they pollinate, coral reefs
• Parasitism


  • Tapeworms and their hosts
• Biome


  A region on Earth that shares a consistent yearly average temperature and precipitation pattern
• Terrestrial biomes


  • Tropical rainforest
  • Tundra
• Aquatic biome characteristics


  • Salinity
  • Flow
  • Depth
• Estuary


  A type of aquatic biome where the mouth of a river empties into the ocean
• Matter is never created or destroyed, only changed in form
• Carbon cycle


  Reservoirs, sources, sinks
• The atmosphere is a critical carbon reservoir, and the amount of carbon it stores determines Earth's global climate
• Photosynthesis takes carbon out of the atmosphere, while respiration returns it
• Extraction and combustion of fossil fuels return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change
• Nitrogen fixation


  The process of converting unusable nitrogen (N2) into a usable form, such as ammonia or nitrate
• Nitrogen fixation processes


  • Bacteria
  • Rhizobacteria
  • Lightning strikes
  • Fossil fuel combustion
• Other steps in the nitrogen cycle

  • Ammonification
  • Nitrification
  • Denitrification
• Phosphorus cycle


  No gas phase, rocks and sediments, weathering, erosion
• Phosphorus is often a limiting nutrient in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
• Water cycle processes


  • Evaporation
  • Condensation
  • Precipitation
  • Infiltration
  • Transpiration
• Water reservoirs


  • Oceans
  • Groundwater
  • Polar ice caps
  • Rivers and lakes
• Primary productivity


  The rate of photosynthesis in a given area
• Net primary productivity (NPP)

  NPP = GPP - RL, where GPP is gross primary productivity and RL is respiration loss
• Trophic levels


  • Producers
  • Primary consumers
  • Secondary consumers
  • Tertiary consumers
• The energy flow through the trophic pyramid is characterized by the 10% rule, where each level only receives 10% of the energy from the level below
• The removal of one species can have a huge effect on the organisms in the rest of the food web, especially those on either side of it
• Trophic cascades


  The powerful effects of predators in an ecosystem, leading to changes in population sizes and ecosystem structure
• Biodiversity


  The diversity of different life forms found in an ecosystem
• Levels of biodiversity


  • Genetic biodiversity
  • Species biodiversity
  • Ecosystem biodiversity
• Species richness


  A count of the total number of different species found in a given ecosystem
• Species evenness


  The distribution or balance of the population sizes of all the different populations present
• Ecosystem services


  • Provisioning services
  • Supporting services
  • Regulating services
  • Cultural services
• Island biogeography


  The closer an island is to the mainland, the higher its species richness; the larger the island, the higher its species richness
• Ecological tolerance


  The range of conditions an organism or species can tolerate before death or serious injury ensues
• Zone of physiological stress

  If the body temperature goes above 106°F or below 86°F, it can enter a zone of physiological stress, which can quickly lead to death
• Genetic diversity acts as a buffer against environmental disturbances
• Types of environmental disturbances

  • Periodic events
  • Episodic events
  • Random events
• Variations in Earth's orbit

  • Eccentricity
  • Axial precession
  • Obliquity
• Adaptation


  A genetic mutation that gives an organism a higher likelihood of surviving and reproducing in a changed environment