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Ecology
8-28-14
Question | Answer |
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Ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and their environment |
Biotic | describes living factors in the same environment |
Abiotic | describes the nonliving part of the environment including water, rocks, light, and temperature |
5 levels of environmental organization | organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere |
Organism | a living thing; anything that can carry out life process independently |
Population | a group of organisms of the same species 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 |
Biosphere | the part of Earth where life exists |
Producer/Autotroph | an organism that can make its own food by using energy from its surroundings |
Consumer/Heterotroph | an organism that eats other organisms or organic matter |
Herbivore | an organism that eats only plants |
Carnivore | an organism that eats only animals |
Omnivore | an organism that eats both plants and animals |
Scavenger | an organism that preys on dead animals |
Decomposer | an organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients |
Food Web | a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
Food Chain | the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organism |
Energy Pyramid | a triangular diagram that shows an ecosystem's loss of energy, which results as energy passes through the ecosystems food chain |
Limiting Factor | a resource that is so scarce that it limits the size of a population |
Carrying Capacity | the largest population that an environment can support at any given time |
Predator | an organism that kills and eats all or part of another organism |
Prey | an organism that is killed and eaten by another organism |
Predator Adaptations | methods that predators use to catch their prey |
Prey Adaptations | methods that preys use to not get caught by the predator |
Symbiosis | a relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other |
Mutualism | a relationship between two species in which both species benefit |
Commensalism | a relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
Parisitism | a relationship between two species in which one species, the parasite, benefits, from the other species, the host, which is harmed |