Question | Answer |
Abiotic factor | The nonliving parts of an organism’s environment. |
biological community | is made up of interacting populations in a certain area at a certain time. |
biosphere | is the portion of Earth that supports living things. It extends from high in the atmosphere to the bottom of the oceans. |
biotic factor | All the living organisms that inhabit an environment |
commensalism | is a symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither harmed nor benefited. |
Ecology | is the study of interactions that take place between organisms and their environment. |
ecosystem | is made up of interacting populations in a biological community and the community’s abiotic factors. |
Habitat | is the place where an organism lives out its life. |
Mutualism | A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit |
niche | is all strategies and adaptations a species uses in its environment—how it meets its specific needs for food and shelter, how and where it survives, and where it reproduces. |
Parasitism | A symbiotic relationship in which a member of one species derives benefit at the expense of another species |
Population | is a group of organ- isms, all of the same species, which interbreed and live in the same area at the same time. |
Symbiosis | The relationship in which there is a close and permanent association between organisms of different species |
Autotroph | An organism that uses light energy or energy stored in chemical com- pounds to make energy-rich compounds is a producer |
Biomass | is the total weight of living matter at each trophic level. |
Decomposer | break down the complex compounds of dead and decaying plants and animals into simpler molecules that can be more easily absorbed. |
Food Chain | is a simple model that scientists use to show how matter and energy move through an ecosystem. |
Food Web | shows all the possible feeding relationships at each trophic level in a community. |
Heterotroph | An organism that cannot make its own food and feeds on other organisms |
Trophic Level | Each organism in a food chain rep- resents a feeding step |