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Ecology wilson
Bio note cards september 27th
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the scientific study of interactions among and between organisms and their environment or surroundings |
| biosphere | part of earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere |
| species | group of similar organsisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| population | group of individuals ofthe 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 |
| heterotroph | organism that contains evergy from the food it consumes (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 | signle nutrient that either is scarce or cycles very slowly, limiting the growth 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 |
| 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 rang of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses the conditions |
| logistic growth | growth pattern in which a populations' growth rate slows or stops following a period of exponential growth |