Question | Answer |
biosphere | the part of the earth that supports life |
carrying capacity | the largest number of individuals of one species than an ecosystem can support over time |
commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unharmed |
consumer | organisms that cannot make their own energy-rich molecules |
ecology | the study of interactions that occur among organisms and their environment |
ecosystem | all the organisms living in an area and the nonliving features of their envitonment |
habitat | the place in which and organism lives |
limiting factor | anything that restricts the number of individuals in a population |
mutualism | a symbiotic realtionship in which both species benefit |
niche | how an organism survives, including its habitat, how it obtains food and shelter, and how it avoids danger |
community | all the populations in a ecosystem |
parasitism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits while the other is harmed |
population | the organisms that belong to the same species living in a community |
producer | organism, such as a green plant, that gets its energy from an outside source such as the sun |
symbiosis | any close relationship between two organisms |
predator | the organism that feeds on another organism for food |
prey | an organism that is harmed in order to feed another organism. |
competition | a quarrel between two organisms usually because of food |
chemosynthesis | process in which producers make energy rich nutrient molecules from chemicals |
food web | model that shows the complex feeding relationships among organisms in a community |
energy pyramid | model that shows the amount of energy available at each feeding level in an ecosystem |
food chain | the order in which an organism eats another |