Term | Definition |
organism | a living thing |
habitat | a place where an organism lives that provides the things it needs to live grow and reproduce |
biotic factor | the living parts of an ecosystem |
abiotic factor | the non living parts of an ecosystem |
photosynthesis | the process used by plants and algae to make their own food |
species | a group of organisms that are physically similar that can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce |
population | all the members of one species in a particular area |
community | all the different populations that live together in an area |
ecosystem | all the living and non living things that interact in an area |
ecology | the study of how living things interact with each other and their environment |
estimate | an approximation of a number based on reasonable assumptions |
birth rate | the number of births in a population in a certain amount of time |
death rate | the number of deaths in a population in a certain amount of time |
immigration | moving into (joining) a population |
emigration | moving out of (leaving) a population |
population density | the number of individuals in a certain area (describes how crowded an area is) |
limiting factor | an environmental factor that prevents a population from increasing |
carrying capacity | the largest population that an environment can support |
natural selection | The series of changes in a population that make organisms better suited to their environment which increases their chances for survival |
adaptations | behaviors and physical characteristics of a species that allow them to live successfully in their environment (a result of natural selection) |
niche | an organism's particular role i its habitat |
competition | the struggle between organisms to survive as they attempt to use the same limited resources |
predation | an interaction in which one organism kills and eats another organism |
predator | in predation, the organism that does the killing |
prey | in predation, the organism that is killed and eaten |
symbiosis | a close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species |
mutualism | a relationship in which both species benefit |
commensalism | a relationship in which one species benefits, but the other species is neither helped nor harmed |
parasitism | a relationship in which one species lives on or in another and harm it |
parasite | in parasitism, the organism that benefits from the interaction |
host | in parasitism, the organism the parasite lives on or in (the organism that is harmed in the interaction) |