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Ecology Unit Vocab
Ecology Unit Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the study of organisms and their interactions with the environment. |
| Biosphere | life supporting region of the Earth; all land, water, and air in which organisms live. |
| Biotic factors | all of the living parts of an ecosystem. |
| Abiotic factors | all of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem. |
| Organism | an individual member of a species within a population. |
| Population | all of the organisms in an ecosystem that belong to the same species. |
| Community | all of the populations in an ecosystem. |
| Ecosystem | all of the organisms living in an area and the nonliving features of their environment. |
| Habitat | the place in which an organism lives. |
| Niche | how an organism survives, how it obtains food and shelter, how it finds a mate and cares for its offspring, and how it avoids danger. |
| carrying capacity | the largest number of individuals of one species that an ecosystem can support over time. |
| limiting factors | anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population. |
| Predator | consumers that capture and eat other consumers. |
| Prey | the organism that is captured and consumed by the predator. |
| Producers/Autotrophs | organisms such as plants and algae, which through the process of photosynthesis create energy-rich food. |
| Consumers/Heterotrophs | an organism that cannot make its own food and feeds on other organisms. a consumer that only eats plants. |
| Herbivore | a consumer that only eats plants. |
| Carnivore | a consumer that feeds only on other animals. |
| Omnivore | a consumer that feeds on plants and animals. |
| Scavengers | a consumer that eats organisms that have already died. |
| Decomposers | a consumer that breaks down the complex compounds of dead and decaying plants and animals into simpler molecules that can be more easily absorbed. |
| Food chain | a diagram that shows the flow of energy and matter between animals in a community. |
| Food web | shows all the possible feeding relationships at each trophic level in a community. |
| Trophic level | a feeding step in a food chain, or ecological energy pyramid. |
| Ecological energy pyramid | shows how energy flows through an ecosystem. |
| Symbiosis | a relationship of dependence or mutual benefit between organisms of the same ecosystem. |
| Mutualism | a relationship where both organisms benefit. |
| Commensalism | a relationship where one organism benefits and the other organism is not affected. |
| Parasitism | a relationship where one organism benefits and the other organism is harmed. |
| Ecological Succession | Natural, gradual changes in the types of species that live in an area; can be primary or secondary |
| Primary Succession | begins in an area where NO SOIL is present. The development of an ecosystem in an area that has never had a community living within it. |
| Secondary Succession | the process of restabilization that follows a disturbance in an area where life has formed an ecosystem. SOIL IS ALREADY PRESENT. |
| Climax Community | a mature, stable community that is the final stage of ecological succession. Conditions, biotic and abiotic factors, including resources, are suitable for an ecosystem to exist. (End result of succession.) |
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