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ecology flashcards
science class/McClendon/ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the study of how living and nonliving things interact in an ecosystem |
| biotic | living parts of an ecosystem |
| abiotic | nonliving parts in an ecosystem |
| 5 levels of environmental organization | organism, community, population, ecosystem, biosphere, |
| organism | an individual animal, plant, or single celled life form |
| population | all the members of one species in a particular area |
| community | all the different populations that live together in an area |
| ecosystem | all living and nonliving things that interact in an area |
| biosphere | regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms |
| producer/autotroph | an organism that is able to form from nutritional organic substance from simple inorganic substances |
| consumer/heterotroph | an organism deriving it nutritional requirements from complex organic substances |
| herbivore | animal that feeds on plants |
| carnivore | animal that feeds on flesh |
| omnivore | animals that eats food of both plants and animal origin |
| scavenger | animals that feed on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse |
| decomposer | an organism that decomposes organic material |
| food web | a system of interlocking and independent food chains |
| food chain | a series of organisms each dependent on the next as a food source |
| energy pyramid | a graphical model of energy flow in a community |
| limiting factor | environmental condition that limits the growth of an organism or population in an ecosystem |
| carrying capacity | number of living organisms that a region can support without environmental degradation |
| predator | an organism that does the killing |
| prey | an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food |
| predator adaptions | an adaption prey uses in chance of survival |
| prey adaptions | adaptions predators and prey use to obtain food or avoid being eaten |
| symbiosis | relationship between two species where only one benefits |
| mutualism | a relationship that both species benefit |
| commensalism | a relationship where one organism benefits and the other goes unharmed |
| parasitism | a relationship when one organism (parasite) harms the host |