Term | Definition |
Ecology | Study of interactions of living organisms with one another and their environment. |
Biotic | Describes the living factors in the environment. |
Abiotic | Describes the nonliving part of the environment. |
5 Levels of Environmental Organization | Organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere. |
Organism | A living thing. |
Population | A group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographical area. |
Community | All the populations of species that live in the same habitat interact with each other. |
Ecosystem | A community of of organisms and their abiotic enviorment. |
Biosphere | Part of Earth where life exists. |
Producer | An organism that makes its own food from its surroundings. |
Consumer | An organism that eats other organisms or organic matter. |
Herbivore | An organism that eats plants. |
Carnivore | An organism that eats animals. |
Omnivore | An organism that eats both plants and animals. |
Scavenger | An omnivore that eats dead plants and animals. |
Decomposer | An organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms, organic wastes, and consuming or absorbing the nutrients. |
Food Web | A diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in a web. |
Food Chain | Pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms |
Limiting Factor | A resource so scarce, it limits the population size. |
Carrying Capacity | The largest population that an environment can support at any given time. |
Predator | An organism that kills and eats other organisms. |
Prey | An organism that is killed and eaten by other organisms. |
Predator Adaptations | Adaptations that help catch prey. |
Prey Adaptations | Adaptations that help avoid predators. |
Symbiosis | The organisms that live in close association with each other. |
Mutalism | A relationship where both organisms benefit. |
Commensalim | A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits, while the other is unaffected. |
Parasitism | A relationship there the parasite benefits, and the host is harmed. |