GB Wilson - 6th Gr Ecosystems

ecosystem
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Terms in this set (24)
ecosystem
collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment
biotic components
All the organisms that are part of the environment.
abiotic components
Nonliving chemical and physical factors in the environment.
population
a group of organisms of the same species populating a given area
community
(ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
producers
organisms that make their own food; ie: plants
consumers
an organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.
decomposers
organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return raw materials to the environment
bacteria
single-celled organisms that lack a nucleus; prokaryotes
fungus
a group of organisms that do not move and absorb their nutrients from organic materials in the environement, cell walls are made of chitin
parasitean organism that lives on or in a host and causes harm to the hostpredatoranimal that hunts and eats other animalspreyanimal hunted or caught for foodsymbiosisthe living together in mutually helpful association of two dissimilar organisms; both organisms benefitcompetitionthe struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resourcespollutionundesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activitiesresource depletionto use up the supply of a resourcespecies extinctionWhen all organisms of a single species die.ecological rolethe role, job, that something has in an ecosystem; a nichenichethe ecological "job and address" of a plant or animal in nature.climate changea long-term change in weather patterns in a given areaenvironmental impactThe consequences for the environment of human actions (deforestation, oil spills, etc.) and natural occurrences (floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.)habitatthe place or set of environmental conditions in which a particular organism livesfood websA complex diagram representing the many energy pathways in an ecosystem