| Term | Definition |
|---|
| ecology | the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, or surroundings. |
| biosphere | part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere. |
| species | group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. |
| population | group pf individuals of the same species that live in the same area. |
| community | assemblage of different populations that live together in a defined area. |
| ecosystem | collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment. |
| biome | group of ecosystem that have the same climate and dominant communities. |
| autotroph | organisms that use energy from the environment to fuel the assembly of simple inorganic compounds into complex organic molecules. |
| producer | organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic compounds; also called an autotroph. |
| photosynthesis | light-collecting units of the chloroplast. |
| chemosynthesis | process by which some organisms, such as certain bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbonhydrates. |
| heterotroph | organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy an food supply. |
| consumer | organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food supply; also called a heterotroph. |
| herbivore | organism that contains obtains energy by eating only plants. |
| carnivore | organism that obtains energy by eating animals. |
| omnivore | organism that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals. |
| detritivore | organism that feeds on plant and animal remains and other dead matter. |
| decomposer | organism that breaks down and obtains energy from dead organic matter. |
| food chain | series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. |
| food web | network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem. |
| trophic level | Each step in a food chain or food web. |
| ecological pyramid | A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each tropic level in a food chain or food web. |
| biomass | The total amount of living tissue within a given tropic level. |
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