Ecology/Forestry Study Guide

Ecology/Forestry Study Guide

Ecology

·  Ecology – the study of interactions that take place among organisms and their interactions with the environment

·  Ecosystem – made up of a biotic community and the abiotic factors that affect it

·  Community – all the different species living in an area

·  Sampling – used to estimate a population’s size when it is large or spread out

·  Carrying capacity – the largest population that an environment can support

·  Emigration – when members leave the area; causes a population to decrease

·  Climate conditions – determines the type of biome that exists in an area

·  Food web – a series of overlapping food chains

o  Energy pyramid – a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in an ecosystem

·  Water cycle – uses and reuses water in nature

o  Precipitation – water that condenses and falls in the form of rain, snow, sleet, hail, and fog

·  Biotic – living thing in a habitat

·  Abiotic – non-living thing in a habitat; NOT dead

·  Limiting factor – anything biotic or abiotic that restricts the number of individuals in a population

·  Succession – the series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time

·  Pioneer species – break down rocks after a volcanic eruption

·  Secondary succession – series of changes that occur in an area where the ecosystem has been disturbed, but where soil and organisms still exist

·  Decomposer – breaks down waste material and dead animals to get energy

·  Mutualism - a relationship between two organisms in which both of them benefit

·  Parasitism – a relationship between two organisms in which one of them benefits/lives off of the other, and the other is harmed

o  Host – the organism in which a parasite lives on or inside

·  Predator – an animal that preys on others

·  Riparian buffer – located along river banks; helps reduce soil erosion

·  Legumes – can take ‘free’ nitrogen gas and change it into a usable form of nitrogen

·  Nodules – in the roots of plants; where bacteria that change ‘free’ nitrogen into a form plants can use

Forestry

·  60% of PA’s land is covered in forest

·  Silviculture – the art and science of establishing and managing forests

·  Understory – the level of the forest that will be the ‘future forest’

·  Selective cutting – type of timber harvesting that promotes natural forest regeneration

·  Defoliation – loss of leaves

·  Deer – number one enemy of tree saplings in PA

·  Temperature – along with moisture and sunlight, determine which plant species will grow in a certain area of soil

·  Tropical rain forest – has poor soil quality, high decomposition rates, and the largest organism diversity

·  Wetlands – areas that always stay covered with water and help reduce flooding and absorb pollutants

You should also refer back to and review your “Living Things and the Environment” packet.