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ECOLOGY Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Autotroph | an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide |
| Heterotroph | an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances |
| Organism | a living thing made up of one or more cells and able to carry on the activities of life |
| Habitat | the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism |
| Biotic Factor | relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations |
| Abiotic Factor | physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms |
| Species | a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding |
| Population | a distinct group of individuals, whether that group comprises a nation or a group of people with a common characteristic |
| Community | a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common |
| Ecosystem | a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment |
| Ecology | the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings |
| Immigration | the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country |
| Emigration | the act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another |
| Population density | the number of population per unit of total land area of a country |
| Limiting factor | the factor that limits the reaction rate in any physiological process governed by many variables |
| Carrying capacity | a species' average population size in a particular habitat |
| Natural selection | the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change |
| Adaptation | the act or process of changing to better suit a situation |
| Niche | the role an organism plays in a community |
| Competition | when their niches overlap, they both try to use the same resource and the resource is in short supply |
| Predation | one organism kills and consumes another |
| Parasite | relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes without killing the host organism |
| Host | an organism that is infected with or is fed upon by a parasitic or pathogenic organism |
| Succession | the process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over time |
| Primary succession | when a new patch of land is created or exposed for the first time |
| Pioneer species | the species that first colonize new habitats created by disturbance. |
| Secondary succession | the species that first colonize new habitats created by disturbance |
| Producer | make their own food using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis |
| Consumer | organisms that feed either directly or indirectly on producers, plants that convert solar energy into complex organic molecules |
| Herbivore | an organism that feeds mostly on plants |
| Carnivore | an organism that eats mostly meat, or the flesh of animals |
| Omnivore | an organism that regularly consumes a variety of material, including plants, animals, algae, and fungi |
| Scavenger | an organism that consumes mostly decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant matter |
| Decomposer | an organism that breaks down dead organic material |
| Food chain | describes how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem |
| Food web | consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem |
| Energy pyramid | a graphical representation of the energy found within the trophic levels of an ecosystem |
| Nitrogen fixation | any natural or industrial process that causes free nitrogen |
| Biome | an area classified according to the species that live in that location |
| Climate | the long term patterns of temperature, humidity, wind, etc. in an area |
| Desert | any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation |
| Rain forest | an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall |
| Emergent layer | the top layer of a rain forest |
| Canopy | the above ground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns |
| Understory | an underlying layer of vegetation |
| Grassland | ecosystems characterized by a relatively high cover of grasses and other graminoid vegetation in an open, often rolling, landscape with little or no cover of trees and shrubs |
| Savanna | vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy |
| Deciduous Tree | falling off or shed seasonally or at a certain stage of development in the life cycle |
| Boreal forest | forests growing in high-latitude environments where freezing temperatures occur for 6 to 8 months |
| Coniferous tree | vegetation composed primarily of cone-bearing needle-leaved or scale-leaved evergreen trees, found in areas that have long winters and moderate to high annual precipitation |
| Tundra | the coldest of all the biomes |
| Permafrost | a permanently frozen layer below Earth's surface |
| Estuary | a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean |
| Intertidal zone | the area where the ocean meets the land between high and low tides |
| Neritic zone | shallow marine environment extending from mean low water down to 200-metre (660-foot) depths, generally corresponding to the continental shelf |
| Biogeography | the discipline of biology that studies the present and past distribution patterns of biological diversity and their underlying environmental and historical causes |
| Continental Drift | a revolutionary theory explaining that continents shift position on Earth's surface |
| Dispersal | movements of individuals or propagules that have potential consequences for gene flow within and between populations and across space |
| Exotic Species | a species that does not naturally occur in an area. |
| Point Source | contamination that enters the environment through any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, such as a smokestack, pipe, ditch, tunnel, or conduit |
| Nonpoint Source | pollutants released in a wide area |
| Biodegradable | the capacity for biological degradation of organic materials by living organisms down to the base substances such as water, carbon dioxide, methane, basic elements and biomas |
| Natural Resource | any naturally occurring characteristic of our planet |
| Soil conservation | a combination of practices used to protect the soil from degradation |
| Crop rotation | system of growing different kinds of crops in recurrent succession on the same land |
| Contour plowing | farming with row patterns nearly level around a hill – not up and down hill |
| Conservation plowing | a method used by farmers to reduce soil erosion between crop harvesting and next crop planting |
| Biodiversity | the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life |
| Keystone species | an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem |
| Endangered species | a type of organism that is threatened by extinction |
| Threatened species | those species most at risk of becoming extinct in the near future |
| Extinction | the dying out of a species |
| Habitat Destruction | occurs when species are diminished because of environmental forces |
| Habitat fragmentation | when parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas |
| Poaching | the illegal taking of wildlife |
| Captive breeding | the process of maintaining plants or animals in controlled environments, such as wildlife reserves, zoos, botanic gardens, and other conservation facilities. |
| Mutualism | a type of symbiotic relationship where all species involved benefit from their interactions |
| Commensealism | an intraspecific relationship in which one species obtains benefits such as food, shelter, or locomotion from another species without causing adverse effects |
| Parasitism | relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes without killing the host organism |
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khearn
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