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ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abiotic | An environmental factor that is not associated with the activities of living organisms |
| 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 relationship 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 | A community of organisms and their abiotic or nonliving environment. |
| Energy pyramid | A triangular diagram that shows an ecosystems loss of energy which results as energy passes through the ecosystems food chain each row in the pyramid represents a trophic feeding level in an ecosystem and the area of a row represents the energy stored in |
| Food chain | The pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms |
| Food web | A diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem |
| Limiting factor | An environmental factor that prevents an organism of population from reaching its full potential of size or activity |
| Mutualism | A relationship between two species in which both species benefit |
| Parasitism | A relationship between two species the parasite benefits from the other species the host 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 its own food by using energy from its surroundings |
| 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 and oceans and living things |