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Ecology Fitch
Biology Flash Card
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | Scientific study of interactions among organisms and their enviornment |
| Biosphere | Part of earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere |
| Species | Group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| Population | Group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area |
| Community | Assemblage of different populations that live together in a defined area |
| Ecosystem | Collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place together with their nonliving enviornment |
| Autograph | Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds also called a producer |
| Heterotroph | Organism thart obtains energy from the food it consumes also called a consumer |
| Food Web | Network of complex interactions formed by he feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem |
| Trophic Level | Step in food chain or food web |
| Biomass | Total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level |
| Biogeochemical Cycle | Process in which elements chemical compounds and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of a biosphere to another |
| Limiting Nutrient | Single nutrient that either is scarce or Cycles slowly limiting the growth of other organisms in the ecosystem |
| Weather | Condition of the earths atmosphere at a particular time or place |
| Climate | Average year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a certain area |
| Green House Effect | Natural situation in which heat is retained in earths atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases |
| Biotic Factor | Biological influence on organisms within an ecosystem |
| Abiotic Factor | Physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem |
| Niche | Full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and in the way in which the organism uses those conditions |
| Logistic Growth | Growth pattern in which a populations growth rates slow or stops following a period of exponetial growth |
| Carrying Capacity | Largest number of individuals of a population that a given enviornment can support |
| Demography | Scientific study of human populations |
| Demographic Transition | Change in population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates |
| Green Revolution | Introduction of intensive farming practices thatr lead to a substantial increase in crop yields |
| Renewable Resource | Resource that can regenerate quickly and that is replaceable |
| Pollutant | Harmful material that can enter the biosphere through land, air, or water |
| Biodiversity | Biological diversity, the sum total of the variety of organims in the biosphere |
| Biological Magnification | Increasing concentration of a harmful substance in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web |