Question | Answer |
niche | how an organism survives, inclucing it's habitat, how it obtains food & shelter, & how it avoids danger |
habitat | where an organism lives |
population | all organisms in an ecosystem that belong to the same species |
community | all populations in an ecosystem |
ecosystem | all organisms living in an area & the nonliving features of the environment |
biosphere | part of the Earth that supports life, including the top part of the Earth's crust, all water on Earth, & the surrounding atmosphere |
limiting factor | anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population |
carrying capacity | the largest number of individuals of one species that an ecosystem can support over time |
ecology | the study of interactions that occur among organsims & their environment |
producer | organisms that use an outside energy source, such as the Sun, to make energy-rich molecules |
consumer | organisms that can't make their own energy-rich molecules |
symbiosis | any close relationship between species |
mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit |
commensalism | a symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits & the other isn't affected |
parasitism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benifits but the other is harmed |
predator | consumers that capture and eat other consumers |
prey | the organism that is captured by the predator |
competition | fighting for necesary life materials |
chemosynthesis | the process of making food from chemicals |
food chain | a way of showing how matter and energy pass from one orgainsim to another |
food web | a model that shows all the possible feeding relationships among the orgainisms in a community |
energy pyramid | shows the amound of energy available at each feeding level in the ecosystem |