Science 421 Ecology
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Created by:
camacdougall on June 1, 2012
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35 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 omnivore | An organism that eats both plants and animals. |
| herbivore | An organism that eats only plants |
| carnivore | An organism that eats only animals. |
| consumer | An organism that must eat to obtain energy. |
| habitat | The area in which an organism lives. |
| decomposer | An organism that eats detritus. |
| amphibian | An organism that lives on land and in the water. |
| ecosystem | Communities of species and their environment. Biotic and abiotic factors within an area. |
| food chain | Step by step sequences showing feeding relationships in a straight line. |
| producer | An organism that makes its energy from the sun - plants. |
| bioindicator | A species whose health indicates the health of an ecosystem. |
| vulnerable | At risk due to declining numbers in some areas. |
| threatened | Likely to become endangered if factors are not reversed. |
| extirpated | No longer exists in specific areas, but can be found in others. |
| endangered | Close to entinction. |
| extinct | A species that does not exist anywhere. |
| biodiversity | The number of different species in an ecosystem. |
| ecology | The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. |
| abiotic | Non-living |
| biotic | Living |
| population | The number of individuals in a species. |
| community | Populations of different species within an area. |
| ecotone | The transition area between two ecosystems. |
| artificial ecosystem | An area that was man made, such as a park. |
| natural ecosystem | An area that was formed by nature, such as a forest. |
| autotroph | An organism that makes its own food, also known as a producer or plant. |
| heterotroph | An organism that can't make its own food, aslo known as a consumer or animal. |
| trophic level | The feeding levels within a food chain. They are counted as primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. |
| food web | A graphic representation of feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. |
| thermodynamics | The study of energy changes. |
| First Law of Thermodynamics | Energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. |
| Second Law of Thermodynamics | When energy is changed, some energy is made unusable in form of heat. |
| Pyramid of Energy | Graphically represents energy flow in a food chain. |
| Pyramid of Numbers | Graphically represents the population of organisms in a food chain. |
| Pyramid of Biomass | Graphically represents the dry mass of organisms in a food chain. |
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