Term | Definition |
ecology | study of the interactions between organisms and their environment |
biotic | the living part of the environment
living organisms |
abiotic | the parts of the environment that are non-living |
environment | made up of biotic and abiotic parts |
organisms | anything that can independently carry out life processes |
population | a group of individuals of the same species that live together in the same area at the same time |
community | all the populations of different species that live in and interact in an area
all biotic factors |
ecosystem | a community of organisms and their nonliving environment
both biotic and abiotic |
biosphere | the part of the Earth where life exists |
autotrophs/producers | organisms that make their food using sunlight or chemicals |
heterotrophs/consumers | organisms that eat other organisms to get food |
herbivore | eats only plants |
carnivore | eats only meat |
omnivore | eats both plants and meat |
scavenger | animal that feeds on bodies of dead organisms |
decomposer | organism that gets energy from decomposed organisms like mushrooms and bacteria |
food chain | shows the way energy flows from one organism to the next |
food web | shows many energy pathways in an ecosystem |
energy pyramid | a representation of energy lost at each level of the food chain |
habitat | environment an organism lives in |
niche | an organism's way of life in its ecosystem |
limiting factors | populations cannot grow indefinitely because the environment contains only so much food, water, living space and other needed resources |
carrying capacity | the largest population that a given environment can support over a long period of time. |
competition | two or more individuals or populations try to use the same limited resources such as food, water, shelter, space, sunlight |
predator | organisms that eat the prey |
prey | organism that is eaten |
symbiosis | a close, long-term association between two or more species |
mutualism | both organisms benefit |
commensalisms | one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
parasitism | one organism benefits while the other is harmed |
coevolution | a long-term change that takes place in two species because of their close interactions with one another |