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Unit 8 Ecology
Term | Definition |
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Ecology | study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
ecosystem | a community of organisms and their abiotic environment |
producer | produces its own food through photosynthesis |
decomposer | organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms |
consumer | an organisms that eats other organisms |
herbivore | an organism that eats only plants |
carnivore | organisms that obtain energy by eating animals (meat) |
omnivore | organism that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals |
food chain | series of event sin which one organism eats another to obtain energy - 1 pathway |
food web | network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among various organisms in an ecosystem |
predator | organism that does the killing in a predation interaction |
prey | an organism that is killed and eaten by another organism |
biotic | living factors in the environment |
symbiosis | a relationship in which 2 different organisms live in close proximity with each other |
mutualism | a relationship between 2 species in which both species benefit |
commensalism | a relationship between 2 organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
parasitism | a relationship in which one organism lives on or in a host and harms it |
competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
limited factors | an environmental factor that prevents a population from increasing |