| Term | Definition |
|---|
| ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment or surroundings |
| species | individuals that are so similar they can breed. |
| population | groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area. |
| community | different populations that live together in a defined area. |
| ecosystem | collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their non living, or physical, environement. |
| biome | group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar dominant communities |
| biosphere | contains the combined portions of the planet in which all of life exists, including land, water,and air or atmosphere. |
| ecosphere | plants, animals....which are contained in a biosphere. |
| atmosphere | air contained in a biosphere. |
| lithosphere | dirt contained in a biosphere. |
| hydrosphere | water contained in a biosphere. |
| autotrophs | organisms that can capture energy from the sunlight or chemicals and use that energy to produce food from inorganic compounds. |
| producers | another name for autotroph. |
| photosynthesis | process by which plants and some other organisms use light energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and high energy carbs such as starches and sugars. |
| chemosynthesis | process by which some organisms such as certain bacteria use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates. |
| what is the main energy source for life on earth? | sunlight |
| heterotrophs | an organism that obtains energy from the food it consumes. |
| consumers | another name for heterotroph. |
| What are the types of heterotrophs? | herbivores,carnivores,detritivores,omnivores, and decomposers |
| herbivores | only eats plants. |
| carnivores | only eats animals. |
| omnivores | eats plants and animals |
| detritivores | eats animal remains and dead matter. |
| decomposers | breakdown organic matter. |
| food chain | series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. |
| food webs | network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem. |
| trophic levels | each step in a food chain or a food web. |
| What does each consumer depend on? | the trophic level below it for energy. |
| The three nutrient cycles are? | carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and the phosphorus cycle |
| transpiration | loss of water from a plant through its leaves |
| biogeochemical cycles | 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. |
| unlike the one way flow of energy... | matter is recycles within and between ecosystems. |
| energy flows through an ________ in one direction, from the______ or inorganic compounds to ________(producers) and then to various ________(consumers) | ecosystem,sun, autotrophs,heterotrophs |
| nutrients | all the chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life. |
| nitrogen fixation | process of converting nitrogen gas into ammonia. |
| denitrification | conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas. |
| primary productivity | rate at which organic matter is created by producers. |
| limiting nutrient | single nutrient that eather is scarce or cycles very slowly, limiting the growth of organisms in an ecosystem. |
| algal bloom | immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers that results from a large input of limiting nutrient. |
| biotic factors | biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem, for example animals, bacteria, mushrooms... |
| abiotic factors | physical or non living factors that shape ecosystems, for example tempurature, humididty... |
| habitat | the area where an organism lives. |
| niche | full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions. |
| together, biotic and abiotic factors determine the ______and______ of an organism and the ______ of the ecosystem in which the organism lives. | survival, growth, productivity |
| 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. |
| biomass | total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level. |
| biomass pyramid | represents the amount of living organic matter at each trophic level. |
| ecological pyramid | diagram that shows the relative amount of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web |
| energy pyramid | shows the relative amount of energy available at each trophic level. |
| pyramid of numbers | shows the relative number of individual organism at each trophic level. |
| only about ____ percent of the _____ available within one trophic level is _______ to organisms at the next trophic level | 10,energy,transferred |
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