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.

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