| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Ecology | the study of the interactions of organisms with one another and with their environment |
| Biotic | all the living factors in the environment (including all the kindgoms) |
| Abiotic | all the nonliving things in the environment (including water, rocks, light and temperature) |
| levels of environmental organization | organism, population, community, ecosystem/biome, biosphere |
| population | group of organisms of the same species living in the same area |
| community | all the populations of species that live and interact in the same habitat |
| biosphere | the part of Earth where life exists |
| ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic environment |
| savanna | grassland with scattered clumps of trees and seasonal rains, large herbivores |
| coniferous forest | most trees produce seeds in cones |
| tundra | cold, treeless plain with permafrost, surface thaws to form bogs in summer, shallow rooted plants, |
| deciduous forest | most trees lose their leaves during winter |
| tropical rainforest | greatest diversity of plants and animals, soil is thin & poor in nutrients, |
| desert | very dry and often very hot, less than 10 inches of rain per year, |
| temperate grassland | many grasses, but few trees due to fires, drought, and grazing, lots of small seed eating animals & large herbivores, includes praries, steppes & pampas |
| coral reef | made of the skeletons of small animals, 2nd largest diversity on Earth |
| sargasso sea | contains huge, floating rafts of algae |
| intertidal zone | where the ocean meets the land, organisms have adapted to keep from being swept away, includes mud flats, sandy beaches, and rocky shores |
| estuary | fresh water from rivers mixes with salty ocean water, has constantly changing amount of salt in the water |
| alpine tundra | found above the tree line of mountains |
| marsh | wetland that is often in shallow areas along shores, treeless |
| polar ice | has icy waters that are rich in nutrients, found in Arctic & Antarctic oceans |
| swamp | wetland that has trees and is often found in low-lying areas |
| limiting factors | a resource that is so scarce that it limits the size of a population, |
| carrying capacity | the largest population that an environment can support at any given time (as much as it holds) |
| permafrost | layer of soil that stays frozen beneath the surface soil |
| food chain | grass is eaten by a rabbit which is eaten by an owl |
| food web | a complex diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
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