click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Ecosytemes
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Abiotic factors | Nonliving things in ecosystems are called abiotic factors. |
Organism | A single form of life; the simplest form of organization in ecology. |
Population | All members of one kind of organism that live in a particular area. |
Communities | A group of different populations of organisms |
Ecosystem | A collection of different communities and the abiotic factors. |
Examples of Biotic and Abiotic Factors | Examples: soil, water, temperature, sunlight |
Niche | the specific role an organisam plays in the ecosystem |
Biotic Factors | The living parts of an ecosystem are called biotic factors. |
California Gold Rush | period where thousands of people went west to search for gold |
Cattle Drive | when cowboys guided huge herds of cattle north to new railroad lines extending across the Great Plains |
Pony Express | business that delivered mail from Missouri to California in just ten days |
Samuel B. Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
Transcontinental Railroad | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Western United States |
Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha, Nebraska. Most workers were Irish immigrants |
Central Pacific | began building train track east from Sacramento, California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants |
Promontory Point | place in Utah where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental Railroad |
Chinese Immigrants | made up almost 80% of the Central Pacific Workers |
Red Cloud | told Union Pacific workers they were scaring away the buffalo |
Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman | warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads |
Homestead Act of 1862 | law that offered free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the Great Plains |
Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act |
sod House (soddy) | houses made from sod (soil) on the Great Plains |
sodbusters | the name for farmers on the Great Plains |
pioneers | new settlers |
exodusters | thousands of African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started communities |
Nicodemus, Kansas | a successful community started by exodusters |
technology | the use of new ideas to make tools that improve people’s lives |
entrepreneur | a person who starts a new business hoping to make a profit |
Levi Strauss | began making pants out of blue denim that were Sturdy and didn’t tear – the first blue jeans |
Reservation | area of land set aside for Native Americans |
Sitting Bull | chief of the Lakota tribe in the Black Hills of South Dakota |
Col. George Custer | led the 7th Cavalry on a mission to defeat the Defeat the Lakota and force them onto a new Reservation |
Battle of Little Bighorn | battle in which Crazy Horse helped lead the Lakota to victory against the U.S. forces |
Chief Joseph | A Nez Perce’ chief who led his people to the Canadian border to avoid moving to a reservation. |