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Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Apex Predator (Consumer) | The predator at the top of the food chain who has no natural predator. |
Aquatic ecosystem | An ecosystem in and around a body of water. |
Carnivores | Obtain energy by eating other consumers. |
Carrying Capacity | The maximum population size that an ecosystem can support. |
Cellular Respiration | The process where cells break down food/sugars in the presence of oxygen to release energy. |
Chemo-synthesis | The process by which bacteria turn chemical energy into food producers. |
Commercialism | A symbiotic relationship between two organisms in which both organisms benefit. |
Competition | An interaction that occurs when organisms try to get the same resources. |
Consumers | Organisms in an ecosystem that cannot make their own food. Also called must obtain food from other sources.also called heterotrophs. |
Cooperation | A helpful interaction among organisms living in a limited area that aids each organism’s survival. |
Decomposer | Obtain energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or wastes of living organisms. |
Denitrification | The process in which fixed nitrogen compounds are converted back into nitrogen gas and returned to the atmosphere by bacteria. |
Density Dependent Limiting Factor | A limiting factor that depends in some way on population size.These are usually biotic factors. |
Density Independent Limiting Factor | A limiting factor that in no way depends on population size.These are usually abiotic factors. |
Energy Pyramid | A diagram that shows the energy flows between organisms in an ecosystem. |
Food Chain | A series of organisms in which each feeds on the one at the next lower trophic level. |
Food Web | All of the food chains in an ecosystem and how they are interconnected. |
Herbivores | Obtain energy by eating plants. |
Host | An organism that a parasite lives in or on. |
Limiting Factor | Any biotic or abiotic factor restricts the population size or affects population growth. |
Mutualism | A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. There are three types of symbiosis-mutualism, commensalism, parasitism. |
Nitrogen Fixation | The process that converts nitrogen in the atmosphere into compounds in the soil that are useful to a variety of organisms. |
Omnivores | Obtain energy by eating both producers and other consumers. |
Parasite | An organism that lives in or on another organism and benefits at the other organism’s expense. |
Parasitism | A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed. |
Photosynthesis | The process by which plants use the sun’s energy to make food chemosynthesis. The process where plants use the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars/food. |
Producers | organisms in an ecosystem that make their own food. Also called autotrophs. |
Predation | An interaction in an ecosystem where the predator kills and eats the prey. |
Predator | An organism that hunts, captures, and eats other organisms. |
Prey | An organism that is hunted and eaten. |
Symbiosis | All of the food chains in an ecosystem and how they are interconnected. |
Terrestrial Ecosystem | A land-based ecosystem. |
Trophic Level | An energy level in an ecosystem. |