BIOL 1070 Chapter Notes -Species Richness, Population Ecology, Decomposer
8 Mar 2014
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Biodiversity: variability among living organisms from all sources. Includes diversity within species, between species and within ecosystems. Scales genetic biodiversity, species biodiversity and ecosystem biodiversity. Species richness: the number of species present in a certain area. When a curve counting number of new species found begins to level off as more and more sections of the area are surveyed, the species richness is said to be determined. When a graph levels out, species richness is said to be saturated. Species abundance: how common a species is in a defined area. Relative abundance: compares the abundance of different species. Determines how even the number of individuals in different species are. A low relative abundance correlates with a lot of individuals in one species and not very many in another. Abiotic: non-living factors of an environment, such as physical and chemical features of an environment like light, temperature, water, gases and soil. Biotic: living factors of an environment, defining three categories.
