Justin Stickel Science Ecology Chapter 3

• -The number and variety of organisms found in a specific region
• -E.G almost 5000 species of plants have been identified in Canada
• -Each species plays an important role in maintaining sustainable ecosystems

-To guard legally from harm a species that is listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern

• -Exists in a place where there is a large number of species in a small area
• -E.G Carolinian Canada in south-western Ontario

• -All the populations of the different species that interact in a specific area or ecosystem
• -Species depend on interacitons

• -Species that are so abundant that they have the biggest biomass of any community member
• -The removal of this species can result in a decrease in biodiversity within an ecosystem

• -Greatly affects population numbers, and the health of an ecosystem
• -Generally not abundant
• -Can be plants or animals
• -I.E (Sea otters, prairie dogs, black footed ferrets)

• -The breeding of rare or endangered wildlife in controlled settings to increase population size
• -I.E (Black footed ferrets, prairie dogs)

-Species that cause such dramatic changes to landscapes that they create a new ecosystem

-Series of changes in an ecosystem that occurs over time, following a dissturbance

-Occurs when events, due to natural disasters or human activities, alter a terrestrial or aquatic ecosystem so much that many species can no longer survive there.

-Occurs when forests are logged or cleared for human use, and are never replanted

• -Species introduced to new parts of a biosphere from other regions, may be released on purpose, or accidentally in shipments of food or other goods
• -Can become invasive species

-Species that can take over the habitat of native species

• -Use or extraction of a resource until it is depleted
• -E.G overfishing of Atlantic cod, over-hunting of passenger pigeons

• -The death of all the individuals of a species
• -May be caused by human activities, such as over-exploitation
• -May happen naturally through background extinction, caused by slow changes in ecosystems that affect species, or through mass extinction, which occurs more quickly

-The current accelerated rate of extinctions

-The renewal of degraded destroyed ecosystems through active human intervention

-Regrowth of a forest, either through natural processes or through the planting of seeds or trees in an area where a forest was cut down

• -The use of a species to control the population growth or spread of a species 
• -E.G use of a European fly to control the gypsy moth, use of bacteria spraying to control tent caterpillars & other forest pests

• -The use of living organisms to clean up contaminated areas naturally
• -E.G use of plants to absorb heavy metals from toxic soil, use of bacteria to clean up oil spills on the coast

• -The use of living organisms to add essential nutrients to depleted soils
• -E.G use of clover to add nitrogen to depleted soil