click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Chapter 11 Vocab
Chapter 11 (Populations and Communities) vocabulary for 7th grade Science.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organism | A living thing. |
| Habitat | An environment that provides the things a specific organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce. |
| Biotic Factor | A living or once living part of an organism's habitat. |
| Abiotic Factor | A nonliving part of an organism's habitat. |
| Species | A group of similar organisms that can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce. |
| Population | All the members of one species living in the same area. |
| Community | All the different populations that live together in a particular area. |
| Ecosystem | The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving environment. |
| Ecology | The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. |
| Birth Rate | The number of births per 1,000 individuals for a certain time period. |
| Death Rate | The number of deaths per 1,000 individuals for a certain time period. |
| Immigration | Movement of individuals into a population's area. |
| Emigration | Movement of individuals out of a population's area. |
| Population Density | The number of individuals in an area of a specific size. |
| Limiting Factor | An environmental factor that causes a population to decrease in size. |
| Carrying Capacity | The largest population that a particular environment can support. |
| Natural Selection | The process by which organisms that are best adapted to their environment are most likely to survive and reproduce. |
| Adaptation | An inherited behavior or physical characteristic that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment. |
| Niche | How an organism makes its living and interacts with the biotic and abiotic factors in its habitat. |
| Competition | The struggle between organisms to survive as they attempt to use the same limited resources in the same place at the same time. |
| Predation | An interaction in which one organism kills another for food or nutrients. |
| Predator | The organism that does the killing in a predation interaction. |
| Prey | An organism that is skilled and eaten by another organism in a predation interaction. |
| Symbiosis | Any relationship in which two species live closely together and that benefits at least one of the species. |
| Mutualism | A type of symbiosis in which both species benefit from living together. |
| Commesalism | A type of symbiosis between two species in which one species benefits and the other species is neither helped nor harmed. |
| Parasitism | A type of symbiosis in which one organism lives with, on, or in a host and harms it. |
| Parasite | An organism that benefits by living with, on, or in a host in a parasitism interaction. |
| Host | An organism that a parasite lives with, in, or on, and provides a source of energy or a suitable environment for the parasite to live. |