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Science H/W
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 1. Ecology | the study of how living things interact with each other and their environment |
| 2. Ecologist | a scientist who studies ecology |
| 4. Biotic Factor | the living part of an ecosystem |
| 5. Abiotic Factor | the nonliving parts of an ecosystem |
| 6. Populations | all the members of one species in a particular area |
| 7. Communities | all the different populations that live together in an area |
| 8. Population Density | the number of individuals in a specific area |
| 9. Immigration | moving into a population |
| 10. Emigration | leaving a population |
| 11. Limiting Factors | an environmental factor that prevents a population from increasing |
| 12. Carrying Capacity | the largest population that an environment can support |
| 13. Niche | an organism’s particular role, or how it makes its living. A niche includes the activities and behaviors that help it satisfy the need for food, water, living space, and reproduction |
| 14. Competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
| 15. Predation | an interaction in which one organism hunts and kills another for food |
| 16. Predator | an animal that hunts and kills other animals for food |
| 17. Prey | an animal that a predator feeds upon |
| 18. Symbiosis | a close relationship between two species that benefits at least one species |
| 19. Mutualism | a relationship in which both species benefit |
| 20. Commensalism | A relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither helped nor harmed |
| 21. Parasitism | It involves one organism living on or inside another organism and harming it. A parasite lives on or in a host |
| 22. Producer | an organism that can make its own food |
| 23. Consumer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| 24. Herbivore | an animal that eats only plants |
| 24. Herbivore | an animal that eats only other animals |
| 26. Omnivore | an animal that eats both plants and other animals |
| 27. Scavenger | an animal that feeds on the remains of decaying organisms |
| 28. Decomposer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| 29. Food Chain | a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy. It shows one way energy flows through an ecosystem |
| 30. Food Web | the pattern of overlapping food chains in an ecosystem. It shows various ways energy can move through an ecosystem |
| 31. Energy Pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food chain |
| 32. Water Cycle | - the processes of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation that recycles our water supply |
| 33. Evaporation | the process by which molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to the gas state |
| 34. Condensation | a gas changes to a liquid |
| 35. Precipitation | rain, snow, sleet or hail that falls from the sky |
| 36. Transpiration | evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant |
| 37. Carbon and Oxygen | The producers use the carbon from the carbon dioxide they take in to produce other carbon containing molecules. They give off oxygen which the consumers take in |
| 38. Nitrogen Cycle | nitrogen moves from the air to the soil, into living things, and back into the air |
| 39. Nitrogen Fixation | the process of changing free nitrogen gas into a usable form of nitrogen |