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Topic 4
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Niche | Includes how an organism obtains its food, the type of food the organism eats, and what other organisms eat. |
| Competition | The struggle between organisms to survive as they use the same limited resources. |
| Predation | An interaction in which one organism kills another for food or nutrients. |
| Symbiosis | Any relationship in which two species live closely together. |
| Commensalism | A relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither helped nor harmed. |
| Mutualism | A relationship in which both species benefit |
| Parasitism | A relationship that involves one organism living with, on, or inside another organism and harming it. |
| Succession | The series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time. |
| Pioneer species | The first species to populate an area |
| Biodiversity | The number and variety of different species in an area |
| Keystone species | A species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem. |
| Extinction | The disappearance of all members of a species from earth. |
| Invasive species | Human activities can also introduce non-native species. |
| Ecosystem services | The benefits humans receive from ecosystems. |
| Ecology | The study of how organisms interact with their environment. |
| Natural resource | Anything naturally occurring on the environment that humans use. |
| Conservation | The practice of using less of a resource so that it can last longer. |
| Sustainability | The ability of an ecosystem to maintain biodiversity and production indefinitely. |
| Ecological restoration | The practice of helping a degraded or destroyed ecosystem recover from damage. |