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Ecosystems
Term | Definition |
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Abiotic Factor | an environmental factor that is not associates with the activities of living organisms |
Artificial Reef | a human-made structure that is built or placed underwater for the purpose of replacing depleted or of enhancing existing coral reef ecosystems |
Biome | a large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plant and animal communities |
Biotic Factor | an environmental factor that is associated with or results from the activities of living organisms |
Community | all the populations of species that live in the same habitat and interact with each other |
Consumer | an animal that eats other organisms or organic material |
Decomposer | an organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients |
Ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment |
Ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic, or nonliving, environment |
Estuary | an area where fresh water mixes with salt water from the ocean |
Food Web | a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
Overharvesting | catching or removing from a population more organisms than the population can replace |
Parasitism | a relationship between two species in which one species, the parasite, benefits from other species, the host, which is harmed |
Population | a group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographical area |
Predator | and organism that kills and eats all or part of another organism |
Prey | an organism that is killed and eaten by another organism |
Producer | an organism that can make its own food by using energy from its surroundings |
Runoff | precipitation that flows over the land and into streams and rivers |
Wetland | an area of land that is periodically underwater or whose soil contains a great deal of moisture |