AP Environmental Science Biodiversity Review

Here's an organized outline for AP Environmental Science Unit 2 reviews. This outline has been adapted from the 2019 Course Description published by College Board. You can use this to build an AP Enviro Unit 2 study guide.

The diversity of species and their habitats are vital to the survival of complex ecosystems. 

• Biodiversity is the variety of life this can be genetic, species, or habitat diversity. 
• Specialist species are often the first to decline as a result of loss of habitat.   These are often indicator species.
• Pioneer species move into unoccupied habitat and over time adapt to its conditions, which may result in the origin of new species.

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Organism Survival

Ecosystems can be significantly altered by natural and manmade disruptions.

• Succession in a disturbed ecosystem will occur faster if the soil of that ecosystem remains intact, this is known as secondary succession. Ecosystems that are newly established or recovering from a loss of soil will take much longer to establish species.
• Earth processes can be on an extremely long timescale and operate in periodic, episodic, and random events.

⚡ Read: AP Environmental Science - Natural Disruptions to Ecosystems 

The survival of organisms depends on their ability to adapt to disruptions to their environment. 

• Environmental changes place new pressures on organisms and they must be able to adapt by altering their behaviors or moving. These environmental changes can be sudden or gradual and threaten a species survival.
• A keystone species is an organism that other species depend on and without it, the structure of the ecosystem would change.
• An indicator species is a plant or animal, that can be used to infer conditions about the ecosystem by its presence or absence.

⚡ Watch: AP Environmental Science - 🎥 Adaptations

Unit 2 Vocab

• Behavioral adaptations
• Biodiversity
• Ecological tolerance
• Ecosystem services
• Generalist species
• Genetic adaptations
• Genetic diversity
• Habitat diversity
• Indicator species
• Island biogeography
• Keystone species
• Natural climate changes
• Pioneer species
• Primary succession
• Secondary succession
• Specialist species
• Species diversity
• Species richness