| Term | Definition |
|---|
| ecology | the study of living things and their environments |
| environment | everything that surrounds a living thing |
| interact | to act upon eachother |
| community | all populations that live in a certain place |
| ecosystem | living and nonliving things in an environment, together with their interactions |
| population | group of the same kind of organism living in a certain place |
| habitat | place where an organism lives |
| niche | organism's role, or job, in its habitat |
| carrying capacity | largest amount of a population that can be supported by an area |
| limiting factors | conditions in the environment that put limits on where an organism can live |
| range | area where a type of animal or plant population is found |
| cycle | something that happens over and over in the same way |
| nitrogen-fixing bacteria | bacteria that can use nitrogen in soil to make nitrogen compounds |
| consumer | organisms that obtain food by eating other organisms |
| decomposer | organism that breaks down the wastes or remains of other organisms |
| producer | organism that makes its own food |
| scavenger | animal that eats only dead organisms |
| energy pyramid | way of showing how energy moves through a food chain |
| food chain | a chain of organisms in which each link feeds on the one ahead and is eaten by the one behind |
| food web | way of showing how food chains are related |
| climax community | last community in a succession |
| succession | gradual change in organisms that occurs when the environment changes |
| biome | large region of the earth with particular plant and animal communities |
| climate | overall weather in an area over a long period of time |
| conservation | wise use of natural resources |
| natural resource | materials found in nature that are used by living things |
| nonrenewable resource | materials found in nature that CANNOT be renewed or replaced |
| renewable resource | natural resouces that CAN be renewed or replaced |
| endangered species | kinds of living things that are in danger of dying out |
| pollution | release of harmful materials into the environment |
| biosphere | thin zone of the earth that supports all life |
| predator | animal that hunts and eats other animals |
| prey | animal hunted or caught for food |
| cell | basic unit of structure and function in living things |
| organism | any living thing |
| response | reaction to a change |
| Adaptation | trait of a living thing that helps it live in its environment |
| environment | Everything that surrounds a living thing |
| digestion | process of breaking down food so that it can be used by living things |
| excretion | process of getting rid of wastes |
| ingestion | process of taking in food |
| respiration | process of getting energy from food |
| transport | process of moving nutrients and wastes in a living thing |
| homeostasis | the ability of a living thing to keep conditions inside its body constant |
| biotic | living |
| abiotic | non-living |
Combine with other sets
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