Ecology Introduction
About this set
Created by:
Mrs_Kopec on April 28, 2011
Classes:
Olean High School's Applied Biochemistry Classes, Olean High School's Living Environment Classes
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52 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| Biosphere | part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere |
| Species | a group of similar organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring |
| Population | a group of organisms of the same species populating a given area |
| Community | all of the populations of different species that live and interact in an area |
| Ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic environment |
| Biome | a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate |
| Autotroph | organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds; also called a producer |
| Producer | organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic compounds; also called an autotroph |
| Photosynthesis | process by which plants and some other organisms use light energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and high-energy carbohydrates such as sugars and starches |
| Chemosynthesis | the production of carbohydrates through the use of energy from inorganic molecules instead of light |
| Heterotroph | organisms that cannot make their own food and must feed on other organisms for energy and nutrients; also called a consumer |
| Consumer | organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food supply; also called a heterotroph |
| Herbivore | organism that obtains energy by eating only plants |
| Carnivore | a consumer that eats other consumers; flesh-eating |
| Omnivore | a consumer that eats both plants and animals |
| Detritovore | consumers that feed at every trophic level, obtaining their energy and nutrients by eating dead organic matter; recycle nutrients back to the environment |
| Decomposer | organisms in an ecosystem that break down organic material (dead organisms, their waste, etc.) |
| Food Chain | a linked feeding series; in an ecosystem the sequence of organisms through which energy and materials are transferred in the form of food from one trophic level to another. |
| Food Web | a community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains |
| Trophic Level | step in the movement of energy through an ecosystem; an organism's feeding status in an ecosystem; each step in a food chain or food web |
| Ecological Pyramid | diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter within each trophic level in a food chain or food web |
| Biomass | the total mass of living matter in a given unit area |
| Biogeochemical Cycle | process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another |
| Evaporation | the process by which water changes from liquid form to an atmospheric gas |
| Transpiration | Process by which plants release water into the atmosphere from small pores on their leaves known as stomata; evaporation of water from leaves of plants |
| Nutrient | a substance that supports the growth and maintenance of an organism |
| Nitrogen Fixation | process in which bacteria convert nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds plants can use to make proteins |
| Denitrification | process in which fixed nitrogen compounds are converted back into nitrogen gas and returned to the atmosphere |
| Primary Productivity | the rate at which organic material is produced by photosynthetic organisms in an ecosystem |
| Limiting Nutrient | single nutrient that either is scarce or cycles very slowly, limiting the growth of organisms in an ecosystem |
| Algal Bloom | an immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers that results from a large input of a limiting nutrient |
| Weather | the meteorological conditions: temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation |
| Climate | average, year-after-year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region |
| Greenhouse Effect | natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases |
| Polar Zone | Cold climate zone where the sun's rays strike Earth at a very low angle. |
| Temperate Zone | climate zones with moderate temperatures that are located between the tropics and the polar zones |
| Tropical Zone | warm climate zone that receives direct or nearly direct sunlight year round |
| Biotic Factor | any living part of an environment |
| Abiotic Factor | physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem |
| Habitat | the place or set of environmental conditions in which a particular organism lives |
| Niche | organism's role, or job, in its habitat |
| Resource | any material that can be used to satisfy a need |
| Predation | an interaction in which one organism kills another for food |
| Symbiosis | a relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other |
| Mutualism | symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship |
| Commensalism | symbiotic relationship in which one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed |
| Parasitism | symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives in or on another organism (the host) and consequently harms it |
| Ecological Succession | (ecology) the gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established |
| Primary Succession | an ecological succession that begins in a an area where no biotic community previously existed |
| Secondary Succession | succession on a site where an existing community has been disrupted |
| Pioneer Species | in primary succession on a terrestrial site the plants lichens and microbes that first colonize the site |
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