Term | Definition |
Ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their enviroment |
Biotic | describes living factors in the environment |
Aboitic | describes the nonliving part of the environ- ment, including water, rocks, light, and temperature |
organism | a living thing; anything that can carry out life processes independently |
Habitat | environment, natural surroundings, home, domain, haunt; formal habitation. |
Population | a group of organisms of the same spe- cies that live in a specific geographical area |
Community | all of the populations of species that live in the same habitat and interact with each other |
Ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic, or nonliving, environment (483) |
Biosphere | the part of Earth where life existse |
Producer | an organism that can make its own food by using energy from its surroundings |
Consumer | an organism that eats other organisms or organic matter |
Decomposer | an organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients |
Herbivore | an organism that eats only plants |
Carnivore | an organism that eats animals |
Omnivore | an organism that eats both plants and animals |
Food Chain | the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms |
Food Web | a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
Energy Pyramid | a triangular diagram that shows an ecosystem’s loss of energy, which results as energy passes through the ecosystem’s food chain |