Ecology
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33 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 ecology | study of relationships between organisms and their environments |
| biosphere | part of earth that supports life |
| biotic factor | any living factor in an organism's environment |
| abiotic factor | any nonliving factor in an organism's environment |
| population | group of organisms of the same species |
| biological community | interacting populations of different species in the same area |
| ecosystem | biological community and all abiotic factors involved |
| biome | large group of ecosystems that share the same climate |
| habitat | area in which an organism lives |
| niche | the specific role of an organism in its environment |
| predation | the act of one organism feeding on another |
| sybiosis | close relationship between two or more species that live together (commensalism, mutualism, or parasitism) |
| mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit |
| commensalism | symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other organism is not helped or harmed |
| parasitism | symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits while another is harmed |
| autotroph | an organism that produces its own food |
| heterotroph | an organism that cannot produce its own food and must take in energy by eating other living things |
| herbivore | organisms that prey only on autotrophs |
| carnivore | organism that preys on other heterotrophs |
| omnivore | organism that preys on heterotrophs and autotrophs |
| detritivore | organism that that decomposes organic material and returns the nutrients to the soil, air, and water |
| trophic level | each step in a food chain or food web |
| food chain | simple model that shows energy transfer along a single path |
| food web | complex model showing the many ways energy can be transferred within an ecosystem |
| biomass | total mass of living matter at a trophic level |
| population density | number of organisms per unit of living area |
| dispersion | how a population is arranged in its environment |
| density-dependent factor | environmental factor that depends on the number of members in an population (disease, competition, etc.) |
| density-independent factor | environmental factor that does not depend on the number of individuals in the population (weather, etc.) |
| population growth rate | how fast a specific population grows |
| emigration | movement of a population out of an area |
| immigration | movement of a population into an area |
| carrying capacity | largest number of individuals in a species that an environment can support |
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