After reading this chapter and analyzing the content, it is assumed that you can:

1. Define ecology, ecosystem, community, population, and habitat.
   
   
2. Explain how the "realized niche" of a population differs from its "fundamental niche."
   
   
3. Interpret survivorship curves.
   
   
4. Contrast exponential and logistic growth of a population.
   
   
5. Discuss how growth of the human population might be curbed by density–dependent and density–independent mechanisms.
   
   
6. Explain how character displacement can ease competition between coexisting species.
   
   
7. Relate how the predator–prey relationship differs from the parasite–host relationship.
   
   
8. Explain how food chains differ from food webs.
   
   
9. Compare and contrast pyramids of energy, numbers, and biomass.
   
   
10. Discuss the relationship between the geographic range of a species and its probability of undergoing speciation or extinction based on paleontological studies.