Kelp Forest Ecology Vocabulary

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Kelp Forest Ecology Vocabulary
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Keystone Species

• A species, such as the sea otter, that affects
  the survival and abundance of many other species
  in the community in which it lives. Its removal
  or addition results in a relatively significant
  shift in the composition of the community and
  sometimes even in the physical structure of the
  environment.

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Community

• All the organisms- plants, animals, and
  microorganisms- that live in a particular habitat
  and affect one another as part of the food web or
  through their various influences on the physical
  environment.

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Habitat

• An environment of a particular kind, such as the
  kelp forest.

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Ecosystem

• The organisms living in a particular environment,
  such as a kelp forest, and the physical part of
  the environment that impinges on them. The
  organisms alone are called the community.

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Plankton

• Drifting or weakly swimming organisms. Their
  horizontal position is dependent largely on the
  mass flow of water rather than on their own
  swimming efforts.

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Zooplankton

• Animal members of the plankton family.

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Phytoplankton

• Plant-like, usually single-celled members of the
  plankton community.

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Abiotic Factors

• The nonliving factors that are connected to an
  environment. Some examples for the kelp forest
  include
• Water temperature
• Water salinity
• Rocky bottom
• Sunlight
• Tides
• Winds
• Storms

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Biotic Factors

• The living factors that are connected to the
  environment. Some examples for the kelp forest
  include
• Phytoplankton
• Zooplankton
• Marine invertebrates
• Marine mammals

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Symbiosis

• The biologists term for the co-occurrence of two
  species in which the life of one is closely
  interwoven with the life of the other.
• There are 3 main types of symbiosis
• Mutualism
• Commensalism
• Parasitism

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Mutualism

• Both the symbiont and the host benefit from the
  relationship.

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Commensalism

• The symbiont benefits from the association while
  the host neither benefits nor is harmed.

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Parasitism

• The most common and highly evolved form of
  symbiosis. Here the symbiont benefits at the
  hosts expense.

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Competition

• The availability of resources such as food,
  light, and space within a community determines
  the number and composition of species within a
  community.

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Population

• A group of individuals of the same species
  occupying the same area.

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Food Web

• A group of organisms associated by a complex set
  of feeding relationships in which the flow of
  food energy can be followed from primary
  producers to consumers. This is an
  interconnected series of food chains.

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Food Chain

• The flow of nutrients and energy from one
  organism to another by means of a series of
  eating processes.

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Energy Pyramid

• The graphic expression of the second law of
  thermodynamics as applied to the energy transfer
  in food chains.
• A certain amount of energy is lost in the form of
  heat as it moves through the links of the food
  chain, the greatest amount of energy is present
  in the basal link (producer) and the least amount
  being present in the terminal link (carnivore).

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Matter Cycles

• Elements like oxygen and nitrogen and compounds
  like water and carbon dioxide pass through a
  non-living compartment (air, water and soil) and
  reach living organisms, eventually coming back to
  an abiotic compartment after the organisms death.

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Adaptation

• A modification or change in an organisms
  structure or habit, frequently hereditary, by
  which a species or individual improves its
  situation in relationship to its environment.

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Natural Selection

• The progression in nature in which, according to
  Darwins theory of evolution, only the organisms
  greatest adapted to their settings will survive
  and pass on their genetic characteristics, in
  rising numbers, to following generations. Species
  less adapted are apt to be elimated.