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Ecology Terms
Ecology terms and definitions for grade 9 science
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecology | How organisms interact with each other and their environment. |
| Abiotic | Non living things, physical things like minerals, air, or things measured with temperature or hours of daylight or salt concentration. |
| Biotic | Living things, organisms like plants animals,or algae. |
| Ecosystem | Any network of interacting living and non-living things. |
| Natural Ecosystem | Neither planned or maintained by people. |
| Artificial ecosystem | Artificial ecosystem is planned and maintained by people. Examples are cities, zoos, aquarium, farms. |
| Species | A group of similar organisms in an ecosystem that can reproduce with each other. |
| Population | A group of members of the same species that live in the same area. |
| Community | Population of different species that live and interact in the same area. These species compete for resources within that area. |
| Niche | All the interactions of a given species with its ecosystem. |
| Biome | Large geographical region that contains similar ecosystems. |
| Terrestrial | Land-based animal, plant or ecosystem. |
| Aquatic | Water based animal, plant, or ecosystem. |
| Biosphere | A part of our planet, including water, land and air, where life exists. Biomes combine to this form... |
| Herbivores | An animal that only eats plants. |
| Carnivores | An animal that only eats meat. |
| Omnivores | An animal that eats both plants and meat. |
| Predators | Animals that catches and feeds off of other live animals. |
| Scavengers | An animal that mostly eats decaying biomass. |
| Parasites | Obtain their food by feeding off another organism like the fish on sharks stomach. |
| Detritivores | A consumer that feeds off of organic matter such as a magget or earthworm. |
| Decomposers | A special group of consumers that break down organic matter and release the nutrients back into the ecosystm. |
| Autograph | Organisms that can make their own food from basic nutrients and sunlight like green plant, algae. |
| Heterotroph | Organisms that must feed on the other organisms to obtain energy. |
| Food Chains | Show a step by step |
| Photosynthesis | The process plants use to produce carbohydrates from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. (CO |
| Biodiversity | Number and range of different organisms in an area. |
| Toxins | Substances that are created by plants that are poisonous(toxic) to humans. |
| Bioaccumulation | Gradual build-up of chemicals in an organism's body. |
| Respiration | The process by which organisms exchange gases, especially oxygen and carbon dioxide, with the environment. |
| Extirpated | Species that no longer exist in a particular region but still occurs elsewhere. |
| Amphibious | born in water, breathing with gills but can live on land or in water. |
| Carrying Capacity | Maximum number of individuals that an ecosystem can support without reducing its ability to support future generations of the species. |
| Commensalism | Type of symbiosis in which one species benefits from a relationships without helping or harming the other species. |
| Mutualism | A type of symbiosis in which both species benefits from the symbiotic partnership. |
| Symbiosis | Close intention between two different species in which members of one species lives in on or near members of another species. |
| Environment | All living things and nonliving things that exist on Earth. |
| Habitat | The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism. |
| Food Webs | A pictorial representation of the feeding relationship among organisms in an ecosystem. |