Ecology Unit
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Created by:
ariannaaperez on September 28, 2012
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56 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 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 |
| 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 |
| commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one member is benefited and the second is neither harmed nor benefited |
| decomposers | Organisms that break down the dead remains of other organisms |
| 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 |
| 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 and has the component necessary for its survival (food, water, shelter, space) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| predation | the act of killing and eating another organism |
| 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 |
| cycle | recur in repeating sequences |
| carbon-oxygen cycle | a biogeochemical cycle which exchanges CO2, O2, and glucose through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. |
| water cycle | the continuous movement of water between Earth's surface and the air, changing from liquid to gas to liquid (condensation, precipitation, evaporation |
| mutualism | a relationship between two species in which both species benefit |
| biomass | the total mass of living matter in a given unit area |
| predator | any animal that lives by preying on other animals |
| prey | animal hunted or caught for food |
| keystone species | a species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem |
| biological magnification | process by which pollutants become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web |
| eutrophication | rapid growth of algae in bodies of water, due to high levels of nitrogen and often phosphate |
| introduced species | (alien species, non-native species), species moved by humans to new geographic areas, either intentionally or accidentally |
| secondary succession | the series of changes that occur after a disturbance of an existing ecosystem |
| endemic | native to or confined to a certain region |
| sustainable use | strives to enable people to use natural resources in ways that will benefit them and maintain the ecosystem |
| bioremediation | the use of living organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems |
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