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ecological community and population
Term | Definition |
---|---|
ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic environment |
biotic | describes living factors in the environment |
abiotic | describes the non-living part of the enviroment |
organism | a living thing; anything that can carry out life processes independently |
species | a group of organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring; also the level of classification below genus and above subspecies |
population | a group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographical area and interbreed |
community | a group of various species that live in the same habitat and interact with each other |
habitat | the place where an organism usually lives |
niche | the unique position occupied by a species, both in terms of its physical use of its habitat and its function within an ecological community |
natural selection | the process by which individuals that are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more successfully than less well adapted individuals do; a theory to explain the mechanism of evolution |
evolution | a heritable change in the characteristics within a population from one generation to the next; the development of new types of organisms from preexisting types of organisms over time |
adaptation | the process of becoming adapted to an environment; an anatomical, physiological, or behavioral change that improves a population’s ability to survive |
artificial selection | the selective breeding of organ-isms (by humans) for specific desirable characteristics |
resistance | in physical science, the opposition presented to the current by a material or device |