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unit 11 ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| biosphere | The thin zone of living organisms and their environments at the surface of Earth |
| population | group of organisms of the same species that occupy the same geographic place at the same time. |
| community (biological) | all the interacting populations of different species that live in the same geographic location at the same time. |
| autotroph | organism that captures energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce its own food; provides the foundation of the food supply for other organisms; also called a producer. |
| heteroph | organism that cannot make its own food and gets its nutrients and energy requirements by feeding on other organisms; also called a consumer. |
| consumer | an organism (heterotroph) that cannot produce its own food and must consume other organisms—plants, animals, or organic matter—to obtain energy |
| detrivore | heterotroph that decomposes organic material and returns the nutrients to soil, air, and water, making the nutrients available to other organisms. |
| food chain | simplified model that shows a single path for energy flow through an ecosystem. |
| food web | model that shows many interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy and matter flow through an ecosystem. |
| population density | number of organisms per unit of living area. |
| immigration | movement of individuals into a population. |
| emmigration | movement of individuals away from a population. |
| exponential growth | Exponential growth is growth that increases by a constant proportion |
| niche | role, or position, of an organism in its environment. |
| habitat | physical area in which an organism lives. |
| ecology | scientific study of all the interrelationships between organisms and their environment |
| ecosystem | biological community and all the nonliving factors that affect it. |
| biotic | any living factors |
| abiotic | any non living factors |
| primary producer | an autotrophic organism—largely green photosynthetic plants—that forms the first trophic level in an ecosystem by converting abiotic energy (such as light or chemical energy) into organic matter |
| trophic level | each step in a food chain or food web. |
| biomass | total mass of living matter at each trophic level. |
| biogeochemical cycle | exchange of matter through the biosphere involving living organisms, chemical processes, and geological processes. |
| logistic growth | is a model of population growth where the per capita growth rate decreases as the population size approaches a maximum sustainable size, known as the carrying capacity |
| carrying capacity | number of organisms that a specific environment can support. |
| limiting factor | biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the number, distribution, or reproduction of a population within a community. |
| ecological succession | process by which one community replaces another community because of changing abiotic and biotic factors. |
| competitive exclusion | states that two species competing for the exact same limiting resources cannot stably coexist at constant population values |
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