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Ch. 3 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecology | The scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment or surroundings. |
| Biosphere | Contains the combined protions of the planet in which all of life exists including land water and air or atmosphere. |
| Species | A group of organisms so similar to one another that they can bred and produce fertile offspring. |
| Populations | Groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area. |
| Communities | Assemblages of different populations that live together in a defined area. |
| Ecosystem | is a collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place together with their noliving or physical environment. |
| Biome | A group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar dominant communities. |
| Autotrophs | use energy from the environment to fuel the assembly of simple inorganic compounds into complex organic molecules. |
| Producers | Those that capture energy from sunlight and those that capture chemical energy are essential to the flow of energy through the biosphere. |
| Photosynthesis | Use light energy to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy rich carbohydrates such as sugars and starches. |
| Chemosynthesis | Organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates. |
| Heterotrophs | `Organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply. |
| Consumers | Heterotrophs are also called consumers. |
| Herbivores | Obtain energy by eating only plants. |
| Carnivores | Eat animals |
| Omnivores | Eat both plants and animals. |
| Detritivores | Feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter. |
| Decomposers | breaks down organic matter. |
| Food Chain | Series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. |
| Food Web | Feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem form a network of complex interactions. |
| Trophic Level | Each step in a food chain or food web. |
| Ecological pyramid | A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web. |
| Biomass | Total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level. |
| Biogeochemical Cycles | Elements chemical compounds and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another. |
| Evaporation | Process by which water changes from liquid form to an atmospheric gas. |
| Transpiration | Water can also enter the atmosphere by evaporating from the leaves of plants in the process. |
| Nutrients | The chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life. |
| Nitrogen Fixation | bacteria which live in the soil and on the roots of plants called legumes convert nitrogen gas into ammonia in a process. |
| Denitrification | Other soil bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas in a process. |
| Primary Productivity | An ecosystem which is the rate at which organic matter is created by producers. |
| Limiting Nutrient | An ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient that is scarce or cycles very slowly. |
| Algal Bloom | An aquatic ecosystem receives a large input of a limiting nutrient the result is often an immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers. |
Created by:
jtate
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