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Ecology--Interaction
Ecology--Interactions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| niche | everything an organism does and everything the organism needs in its environment |
| natural selection | responsible for evolutionary changes |
| population | a group of organisms of the same sepecies living in the same area |
| herbivore | organisms that eat plants |
| biotic | the living part of an ecosystem |
| abiotic | the nonliving part of an ecosystemcomm |
| host | organism on which a parasite lives |
| habitat | the place in which an organism lives |
| carnivore | animals that prey upon other animals |
| omnivore | organisms that eat both plants and animals |
| feeding level | the location of an organism along a food chain |
| producers | first feeding level in a food chain |
| herbivores | second feeding level in a food chaing |
| useable energy | decreases as one moves from one energy level to the next energy level |
| competition | interaction in which organisms struggle against each other in obtaining the resources need for life |
| living organisms that catch, kill, and eat other living things | |
| prey | |
| symbiosis | a close relationship between two organisms in which one organism lives near, on, or even inside another organism and in which at least one organism benefits |
| commensalism | type of relationship in which one organism benefits from the relationship and the other benefits or is harmed |
| mutualism | interaction between two organism in which both organims benefit is some manner |
| parasitism | relationship between two organisms in which one benefits while the second is harmed in some fashion |
| parasitism example | dog and flea --example |
| mutualism example | bee and flowers--example |
| commensalism | you and the mites living in your eyebrows |
| organism | single living individual |
| species | a group of organisms that can breed and produce viable offspring |
| population | same species in the same place at the same time |
| community | all the populations living in an area and interacting with each other |
| ecosystem | a biological community and the environment it lives in |
| biosphere | all the ecosystems found on earth |
| tolerance limits | Minimum and maximum levels beyond which a particular species cannot survive or reproduce. |
| adaptation | A trait that allows a species to survive more easily and reprod uce. |
| evolution | Inheritance of specific genetic traits that control adaptations, giving a species an advantage in an environment. |
| natural selection | Describes process where better competitors survive and reproduce more successfully. |
| predation | Organism is hunted and killed by another Includes parasites, bacteria, viruses |
| more than one organism attempting to use same resources | |
| divergent | Separation of one species into new species. |
| covergent | Unrelated organisms evolve to look and act alike. |
| habitat | Set of environmental conditions in which a particular organism lives |
| ecological niche | Description of role played by a species in a biological community. |
| Opportunistic Species | Quickly appears when any opening in an ecosystem arises. Many are weeds. |
| pioneer species | Able to quickly colonize new ground where nothing else is growing |
| keystone species | A species whose impact on its ecosystem is especially large and influential. |
| predator | Any organism that feeds directly on another living organism is termed a ________________ |
| intraspecific competition | Competition among members of the same species. |
| interspecific competition | Competition between members of different species. |
| sybiosis | Intimate living together of members of two or more species. |
| commensalism | One member benefits while other is neither benefited nor harmed. |
| mutalism | Both members benefit. |
| parasitism | One member benefits at the expense of other. |
| commensalism | Barnacles create homes by attaching themselves to whales. The whales are unaffected. |