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Ecology Holt
flash cards for ecology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment. |
| 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 environment. |
| Autotroph | 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 that obtains energy from the foods it consumes; also called a consumer. |
| Food web | Network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem. |
| Trophic Level | Step in a 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 the biosphere to another. |
| Limiting Nutrient | Single nutrient that either is scarce or cycles very slowly, limiting the growth of organisms in an ecosystem. |
| Weather | Condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place. |
| Climate | Average, year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region. |