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Ecology Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Abiotic | An environmental factor that is not associated with the activities of living organisms. biogeochemical cycle |
Biotic | An environmental factor that is associated with or results from the activities of living organisms. |
carbon cycle | The movement of carbon from the nonliving environment into living things and back |
Commensalism | A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected. |
Competition | Ecological relationships in which two or more organisms depend on the same limited resource. |
Consumer | an organism that eats other organisms or organic matter. |
Decomposer | An organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients. |
Ecology | The study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment. |
ecosystem | The communities of organisms and their abiotic, or nonliving environment. |
energy pyramid | A triangular diagram that shows an ecosystem's loss of energy, which results as energy passes through the ecosystem's food chain; |
food chain: | The pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms. |
food web | The diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. |
limiting factor | An environmental factor that prevents an organism or population from reaching it's full potential of size or activity. |
Mutualism | A relationship between two species in which both species benefit. |
Parasitism | A relationship between two species in which one species, the parasite, benefits from the other species, the hoist, which is harmed |
Predator | An organism that kills and eats all or part of another organism. |
prey | an organism that is killed and eaten by another organism |
Producer | an organism that can make it's own food by using energy from it's surroundings. secondary consumer |
Symbiosis | a relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other. |
water cycle | The continuous movement of water between the atmosphere, the land, the oceans, and living things. |