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ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| autotroph | an organism that can produce its own food |
| Captive breeding | the process of breeding animals outside of their natural environment in restricted conditions like in farms, zoos or other closed facilities. |
| Poaching | the illegal trafficking and killing of wildlife |
| Habitat fragmentation | when parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas |
| Habitat destruction | when a natural habitat is altered or destroyed so that it can no longer support the species that lives there |
| Extinction | the dying out of a species |
| Threatened species | those species most at risk of becoming extinct in the near future |
| Endangered species | a type of organism that is threatened by extinction |
| Keystone species | species that has a strong effect on its community. |
| Biodiversity | all the different kinds of life you'll find in one area |
| Conservation plowing | a method used by farmers to reduce soil erosion between crop harvesting and next crop planting |
| Contour plowing | the practice of plowing horizontally along the contours of the land |
| Crop rotation | system of growing different kinds of crops in recurrent succession on the same land |
| Soil conservation | the protection of soil from erosion and other types of deterioration, so as to maintain soil fertility and productivity |
| Natural resource | resources that are found in the environment and are developed without the intervention of humans |
| Dispersal | the movement of an individual or multiple individuals away from the population in which they were born to another location, or population, where they will settle and reproduce |
| Exotic species | plant or animal species that have been introduced into an area outside their normal distribution |
| Point source | a situation where large quantities of pollutants are emitted from a single, discrete source |
| Nonpoint source | pollution sources that are diffused and without a single point of origin or not introduced into a receiving stream from a specific outlet |
| Biodegradable | the ability of things to get disintegrated (decomposed) by the action of micro-organisms such as bacteria or fungi biological (with or without oxygen) while getting assimilated into the natural environment |
| Heterotroph | an organism that consumes other organisms in a food chain for energy |
| Organism | a living thing made up of one or more cells and able to carry on the activities of life |
| Habitat | a place where an organism makes its home |
| Biotic factor | a living organism that shapes its environment. |
| Abiotic factor | a non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment such as temperature, water, and light |
| Species | a group of organisms that can reproduce naturally with one another and create fertile offspring |
| Population | a group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area |
| Community | a group of interacting species living in the same location |
| Ecosystem | geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life |
| Ecology | the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment |
| Immigration | when an animal establishes a home in a habitat because it has resources it can utilize or because the habitat is ideal for them |
| Emigration | an animal leaves its home because the habitat is no longer ideal for them and they need to find a more suitable environment |
| Population density | the number of people in a specific area |
| Limiting factor | anything that constrains a population's size and slows or stops it from growing |
| 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 adjustment of organisms to their environment in order to improve their chances at survival in that environment |
| Niche | the role or job an organism plays in a community |
| Competition | Competition will occur between organisms in an ecosystem when their niches overlap, they both try to use the same resource and the resource is in short supply |
| Predation | the killing by one living organism of another for food |
| Mutualism | a type of symbiotic relationship where all species involved benefit from their interactions |
| Commensalism | a relationship where one species benefits while the other is left uneffected |
| 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 |
| Parasite | an organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host |
| Host | An organism that is infected with or is fed upon by a parasitic or pathogenic organism (for example, a virus, nematode, fungus) |
| Succession | natural, gradual changes in the types of species that live in an area; can be primary or secondary |
| Primary succession | the development of an ecosystem that has never had a community living within it; in the beginning there is only rock, sand, and volcanic ash |
| Pioneer species | Species that arrive first in a newly created environment |
| Secondary succession | happens when a climax community or intermediate community is impacted by a disturbance. This restarts the cycle of succession, but not back to the beginning—soil and nutrients are still present |
| producer | any kind of green plant that goes through photosynthesis |
| consumer | a living thing that must eat other organisms to obtain energy necessary for life |
| 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 | organism that breaks down dead organic material |
| Food chain | the sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism |
| 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 | the process by which nitrogen is taken from its molecular form (N2) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds useful for other biochemical processes |
| Biome | an area classified according to the species that live in that location |
| Climate | the description of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area |
| desert | A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life |
| Rain forest | a luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity, found typically in tropical areas with consistently heavy rainfall |
| Emergent layer | the very top layer with tall trees that can grow up to 60-70 m |
| Canopy | the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns |
| Understory | a layer of vegetation beneath the main canopy of a forest |
| Grassland | farmland occupied chiefly by forage plants and especially grasses |
| Savanna | a treeless plain with seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy above a continuous tall grass understory |
| Deciduous tree | Trees and shrubs that, unlike evergreens, lose their leaves and become dormant during the winter. |
| Boreal forest | forests growing in high-latitude environments where freezing temperatures occur for 6 to 8 months and in which trees are capable of reaching a minimum height of 5 m and a canopy cover of 10%. |
| Coniferous tree | mostly evergreen trees and shrubs having usually needle-shaped or scalelike leaves |
| Tundra | treeless regions found in the Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy, and rainfall is scant |
| Permafrost | a permanently frozen layer below Earth's surface, it consists of soil, gravel, and sand, usually bound together by ice |
| Estuary | a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean |
| Intertidal zone | where land and sea meet |
| Neritic zone | shallow marine environment extending from mean low water down to 200-meter(660-foot) depths, generally corresponding to the continental shelf |
| Biogeography | the study of geographic distribution of plants, animals, and other forms of life. |
| Continental drift | The theory of continental drift points out that the Earth's continents are constantly drifting away from each other |
| Dispersal | the movement of individual organisms from their birthplace to other locations for breeding |
| Exotic species | any species, including its larvae, seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating the species, which is not native to that ecosystem |
| Point source | a situation where large quantities of pollutants are emitted from a single, discrete source |
| Nonpoint source | diffuse contamination (or pollution) of water or air that does not originate from a single discrete source |
| Biodegradable | the process by which organic substances are decomposed by micro-organisms (mainly aerobic bacteria) into simpler substances such as carbon dioxide, water and ammonia |
| Natural resource | Anything that is found in nature that can be used by living things |
| 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 | the process of farming by keeping the lines of contour on the sloppy regions |
| Conservation plowing | a method used by farmers to reduce soil erosion between crop harvesting and next crop planting |
| Biodiversity | a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth but it can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem |
| Keystone species | an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem and without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether |
| Endangered species | a type of organism that is threatened by extinction |
| Threatened species | a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future |
| Extinction | the dying out of a species |
| Habitat destruction | the elimination or alteration of the conditions necessary for animals and plants to survive |
| Habitat fragmentation | when parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas |
| Poaching | the illegal trafficking and killing of wildlife |
| Captive breeding | the process of breeding animals outside of their natural environment in restricted conditions in farms, zoos or other closed facilities |
Created by:
Takaylahflebert
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