| Term | Definition |
|---|
| individual | one single organism |
| population | all the individuals of one kind (one species) in a specific area at one time |
| community | all the interacting populations in a specific area |
| ecosystem | a system of interacting organisms and nonliving factors in a specific area |
| biotic | living organisms and products of organisms |
| abiotic | nonliving |
| food web | an informative way to show all food relationships in an ecosystem |
| trophic level | role in a feeding relationship |
| producer | organisms that do not get their food from other organisms, they make their own (ex. plants) |
| primary consumer | gets food from producers. also called first level consumers |
| secondary consumer | gets food from primary consumers. also called second level consumers |
| tertiary consumer | gets food from secondary consumers. also called third level consumers. |
| decomposer | an organism that consumes parts of a dead organism or waste and transfers the matter into simple chemicals |
| limiting factor | any biotic or abiotic factor that acts in some way to limit the number of individuals that survive and reproduce in a population |
| reproductive potential | the rate at which a species can increase its population (if no limiting factors existed) |
| carry capacity | total number of individuals of a population that can be sustained indefinetly by an ecosystem |
| adaptation | any structure or behavior of an organism that increases its chances of surviving and reproducing |
| feature | any general structure, characteristc or behavior of an organism. things like wings, fur, patern, color, or migration. |
| trait | the specific expression of a feature in an individual. things like wing length, density of fur, intensity of color, or timing of migration |
| inheritance | the process of passing genetic information from one generation to the next |
| nucleus | an organelle in the eukaryotic cell that is surrounded by a membrane which contains the cell's DNA |
| DNA | the "blueprint" of the cell. this long structure gives the instructions for how the cell will function. this is what controls inheritance |
| chromosome | DNA coiled and coiled again into a tight structure |
| gene | a section of DNA that contains the instructions for a protein. different of these controls different features. |
| allele | the version of the gene. different of these cause different traits. they determine your characteristics |
| genotype | the combination of alleles in an organism's chromosomes (represented by two letters) |
| dominant allele | the version of the gene that is more influencial. the trait for this allele will be seen over the recessive allele |
| recessive allele | the version of the gene that is less influential. the trait for this allele will be hidden by the dominant allele |
| phenotype | the trait/characteristic observed in an organism (for example, striped fur) |
| homozygous | a genotype with two identical alleles. it may be two dominant alleles (AA) or two recessive alleles (aa) |
| heterozygous | a genotype with one dominant allele and one recessive allele (Aa) |
Combine with other sets
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