Ecology Vocab
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38 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Biosphere | The entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems. |
| Ecosystem | a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment |
| Community | a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other |
| Population | group of individuals of the same species living in a particular area at the same time |
| Habitat | the place where an organism lives |
| Organism | any living thing |
| Biotic Factors | living parts of an ecosystem |
| Abiotic Factors | nonliving parts of an ecosystem |
| Niche | organism's role, or job, in its habitat |
| Autotrophs | organisms that make their own food |
| Producers | organisms that make their own food |
| Chemosynthesis | process by which some organisms, such as certain bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates |
| 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 |
| Biomass | the total mass of living matter in a given unit area |
| Consumers | an organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains |
| Heterotrophs | consumers, they rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply |
| Herbivores | organisms that eat only plants |
| Carnivores | consumers that eat only animals |
| Omnivores | organisms that eats both plants and animals |
| Detrivores | feed on plant and animal remains |
| Decomposers | organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return raw materials to the environment |
| Trophic Level | each step in a food chain or food web |
| Food Chain | series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten |
| Food Web | a community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains |
| Ecological Pyramids | show the relative amount of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a given food chain or food web |
| Energy | the ability to do work or cause change |
| Biogeochemical Cycles | elements, chemical compounds and other forms of matter are passed between organisms and parts of the biosphere in a cycle |
| Carbon/Oxygen Cycle | the process by which carbon and oxygen cycle among plants, animals, and the environment |
| Nitrogen Cycle | the process in which nitrogen circulates among the air, soil, water, plants, and animals in an ecosystem |
| Water Cycle | the continuous cycle of the transfer of water through an ecosystem, which involves evaporation, transpiration, condensation, and precipitation |
| Phosphorus Cycle | the cyclic movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment |
| Ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment |
| Symbiosis | a relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other |
| Homeostasis | process by which organisms maintain a relatively stable internal environment |
| Emigration | the movement of individuals out of a population |
| Immigration | movement of individuals into an area occupied by an existing population |
| Biodiversity | the variety of species living within an ecosystem |
| Exponental Growth | as population gets larger it also grows at a faster rate |
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