Question | Answer |
biosphere | the part of Earth that supports life, including the top portion of Earth's crust, all that waters that cover Earth's surface and surrounding atmosphere |
carrying capacity | the largest numver of individuals of one species that an ecosystem can support over time |
commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is affected |
community | all the populations in an ecosystem |
consumer | organisms that cannot make their own energy-rich molecules |
ecology | the study of interactions that occur among organisms and their enviroment |
ecosystem | all the organisms living in an area and nonliving features of their enviroment |
habitat | the place in which an organism lives |
limiting factor | anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population |
mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit |
niche | how an organism survives;including its habitat how it obtains food and shelter, and how it avoids danger |
parasitism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is harmed |
population | all the organisms in an ecosystem that belong to the same species |
producer | organisms that use an outside energy source, such the sun, to make energy-rich molecules |
symbiosis | any close relationship between species |
predator | any organism that exists by preying upon other organisms |
prey | an animal hunted or seized for food, esp. by a carnivorous animal |
competition | the act of competing; rivalry for supremacy |
chemosynthesis | process in which producers make energy-rich nutrient molecules from chemicals |
food web | model that shows the complex feeding relationship among organisms in the community |
food pyramid | successive levels of predation in a food chain represented schematically as a pyramid because upper levels normally consist of decreasing numbers of larger predators |
food chain | the chain from a food source to the ultimate consumer |