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Ecology Terms
Gr 9 Ecology Terms\Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 1, Ecology | Study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment in a system. such as a bird eating a worm. |
| 2, Abiotic | Non-living things, physical changes, materials, air or things measured such as temperature, hours of daylight, salt. |
| 3, Biotic | Living, these factors are organisms such as plants, animals, mushrooms, bacteria, algae. |
| 4, Ecosystem | Any network of interacting living & non-living factors. |
| 5, Natural Ecosystem | A natural ecosystem is neither planned nor maintained by people. such as the Amazon rain forest. |
| 6, Artificial Ecosystem | Artificial ecosystem is planned and maintained by people. examples City, Zoo, aquarium, and Farms. |
| 7, Species | Group of similar organisms in an ecosystem that can reproduce with each other. like cheetahs are a type of tiger. |
| 8, Population | A group of members of the same species that live in the same area. |
| 9, Community | Populations of different species that live in the same area. |
| 10, Niche | All the interactions of a given species with it's ecosystem. |
| 11, Biome | Large geographical region that contains similar ecosystems. |
| 12, Terrestrial | Land-based /aquatic-water based. |
| 13, Biosphere | A part of our planet, including water, land, and air, where life exists. biomes combine to form this. |
| 14, Herbivores | An animal that only eats plants. |
| 15, Carnaivores | An animal that eats mostly meat . |
| 16, Omnivores | An animal that eats plants and meat. |
| 17, Predators | Animals that catches and feeds off of other living animals. such as a T-rex. |
| 18, Scavengers | An animal that mostly eats decaying biomass. such as Vultures. |
| 19, Parasites | Obtain there food by feeding another off another organism. such as leeches. |
| 20, Detrivores | A consumer that feeds on organic matter. such as an earth worm. |
| 21, Decomposers | A special group of consumers that break down organic matter and release the nutrients back into the ecosystem. |
| 22, Autotroph | Organisms that can make their own food from basic nutrients and sunlight. examples green plant, algae |
| 23, Heterotroph | organisms that must feed on other organisms to obtain energy |
| 24, Food chains | Show a step-by-step sequence of who eats whom in an ecosystem & the one-way flow of energy from the producer to the top level consumer. |
| 25 Photosynthesis | The process plants use to produce carbohydrates from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. (CO2+H20→ sugar + O2) |
| 26, Biodiversity | Number and range of different organisms in an area. |
| 27, Toxins | |
| 28, Bioaccumulation | Gradual build-up of chemicals in an organism’s body |
| 29, | |
| 30, Extirpated | Species that no longer exist in a particular region but still occurs elsewhere |
| 31, Amphibious | Born in water, breathing with gills but can live on land or in water |
| 32, Carrying capacity | Maximum number of individuals that an ecosystem can support without reducing its ability to support future generations of the same species |
| 33, Commensalism | Type of symbiosis in which one species benefits from a relationship without helping or harming the other species. |
| 34,Mutualism | A type of symbiosis in which both species benefit from the symbiotic partnership. |
| 35, Symbiosis | Close interaction between two different species in which members of one species lives in on or near members of another species |
| 36, Environment | all living things and nonliving things that exist on Earth |
| 37, Habitat | The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism. |