Term | Definition |
Ecology | Study of how organisms interact with their environment. |
Population | A localized group of individuals that belong to the same biological species (that are capable of inter breeding & producing fertile offspring). |
Community | All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction. |
Ecosystem | All the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; a community and its physical environment. |
Abiotic | nonliving |
Biotic | Pertaining to the living organisms in the environment. |
Biosphere | The entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planets ecosystems. |
Carrying Capacity | The maximum population size than can be supported by the available resources, symbolized as K. |
Species Richness | The number of species in a biological community. |
Relative Abundance | Differences in the abundances of different species with a community. |
Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) | The total primary production of an ecosystem. |
Net Primary Productivity (NPP) | The gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration. |
Dominant Species | Those species in a community that have the highest abundance or highest biomass. These species exert a powerful control over the occurrence & distribution of other species. |
Keystone Species | A species that is not necessarily abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche. |
Eutrophication | A process by which nutrients particularly phosphorus & nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae. |
Invasive Species | A species that takes hold outside of its native range; usually introduced by humans. |
Photosyntesis | The conversion of light energy to chemical energy that is stored in glucose or other organic compounds; occurs in plants, algae, and certain prokaryotes. |