| Term | Definition |
|---|
| abiotic | nonliving, physical features of the environment, including air, water, sunlight, soil, temperature, and climate |
| biotic | any living or previously living component of an environment |
| biome | group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities |
| autotroph | organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds; also called a producer |
| biosphere | portion of earth that supports life |
| adaptation | a trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce |
| biomass | the total mass of living matter in a given unit area |
| carbon cycle | process by which carbon moves from inorganic to organic compounds and back |
| carnivore | Meat eater |
| climax community | a stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species over time |
| competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
| community | (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other |
| commensalisms | a symbiotic relationship in which one member is benefited and the second is neither harmed nor benefited |
| consumer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| decomposers | Organisms that break down the dead remains of other organisms |
| diversity | the number of species present in a community as well as the relative abundance of each species |
| ecosystem | a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment, a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment |
| ecological succession | The interactions and relationships between organisms and their environment., The series of predictable changes that occurs in a community over time |
| ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| energy pyramid | way of showing how energy moves through a food chain |
| evidence | collected body of data from observations and experiments, a collected body of data from observations and experiments |
| food chain | pathway of food transfer from one trophic level to another |
| food web | links all the food chains in an ecosystem together |
| habitat | Place where an Organism lives |
| heterotroph | an organism that cannot make its own food |
| herbivore | eats only plants |
| homeostasis | ability of a living thing to keep conditions inside its body constant |
| inference | logical interpretation based on prior knowledge and experience |
| limiting factors | anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population |
| matter | that which has mass and occupies space |
| niche | organism's role, or job, in its habitat |
| nitrogen cycle | the circulation and reutilization of nitrogen in both inorganic and organic phases |
| nutrient | chemical that an organism needs to live |
| omnivore | an animal that eats both plants and animals |
| organization | orderly structure of cells in an organism |
| oxygen cycle | producers release oxygen as a result of photosynthesis other organisms take the oxygen from the atmosphere for life process |
| parasitism | a close relationship; one species benefits, the other is harmed |
| population | a group of organisms of the same species populating a given area |
| primary succession | the colonization of new sites like these by communities of organisms |
| producer | an organism that makes its own food |
| predation | the act of killing and eating another organism |
| quantitative | numerical information |
| qualitative | relating to or involving comparisons based on qualities |
| reproduction | the process of generating offspring |
| response | Reaction to a change |
| stimulus | a signal to which an organism responds |
| species | group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| symbiosis | relationship in which two species live closely together, the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent |
| tolerance | organism's capacity to grow or thrive when subjected to an unfavorable environmental factor |
| trophic level | step in a food chain or food web |
| variable | factor that can be changed in an experiment |
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