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Chapter 2 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| carrying capacity | the largest healthy population that an environment can support at any time |
| limiting factor | a resource that is so scarce that it limits the size of a population |
| competition | when two or more individuals or populations try to use the same resource, such as food, water, shelter, space, or light |
| prey | an organism that is killed and eten by another organism |
| predator | an organism that eats all or part of another organism |
| herbivore | an organism that eats only plants |
| carnivore | an organism that eats only animals |
| omnivore | an organism that eats both plants and animals |
| food chain | the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of organisms |
| food web | a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | a triangular diagram that shows an ecosystem's loss of energy, which results as energy passes throughan ecosystem's food chain |