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Chapter 3
definitions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| ecology | the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, or surroundings |
| levels or organization | organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere |
| biome | a group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities |
| species | a group of organisms so similar to one another that they can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| autotroph | use energy from the environment to fuel the assembly of simple inorganic compounds into complex organic molecules. |
| producer | organism that makes its own food |
| photosynthesis | when sutotrophs use light and energy from the sun to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water in oxygen and energy-rich carbohydrates such as sugars and starches |
| chemosynthesis | when organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates |
| heterotroph | consumer |
| consumer | organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply |
| herbivore | eats plants |
| carnivore | eats animals |
| omnivore | eats both plants and animals |
| detritivore | eat plant and animal remains and other dead matter, collectively called detritus |
| decomposer | break down organic matter |
| food chain | a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten |
| food web | when the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem form a network of complex interactions |
| cellular respiration | the way a cell turns food into energy |
| trophic level | each step in a food chain or a food web |
| ecological pyramid | shows the relative amounts of energy available at each trophic level. Organisms use about 10% of this energy for life process. The rest is lost as heat. |
| biogeochemical cycle | elements, chemical compounds and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another through these cycles |
| limiting nutrient | when an ecosytem is limited by a single nutrient that us scarce or cycles very slowly, this substance |
| algal bloom | when an aquatic ecosystem recieves a large input of a limiting nutrient the resuly is often an immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers |
Created by:
Shimstedt
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