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ecology guida
bio
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment |
| biosphere | Part of earth that seeks to understand the living world |
| species | a 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 and their environmant |
| autothroph | organism that can capture energy from sunlight of chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds also called a producer |
| heterotroph | organisms that obtain 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 or matter are passed from one organism to another and from one biosphere to another |
| limiting nutrient | factor that causes the growth of a population to decrease |
| weather | condition of earths 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 range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions |
| logistic growth | growth pattern in which a populations growth rate slows or stops following a period of exponential growth |