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Ecology and structures. Information on ecosystems

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Term
Definition
Autotroph   an organism that is able to make things (food) to survive  
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Heterotroph   an organism that relies on eating autotroph things (must eat other things to survive, it can't make it's own food.)  
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Organism   an individual animal, plant, or other living thing (or a single-cell organism) life form  
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Habitat   the natural home, or environment of an animal, plant, or other living organism  
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Biotic Factor   also known as the living (or used to be living) organisms  
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Abiotic Factor   also known as the non-living (has never lived or is never alive) organisms  
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Species   the classification comparing related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding  
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Population   a community of animals, plants, or humans among whose members interbreeding occurs.  
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Community   a group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.  
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Ecosystem   a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.  
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Ecology   the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings (or the study)  
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Immigration (in Ecology use)   an animal establishes a home in a habitat because it has resources it can utilize or because the habitat is ideal for them  
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Emigration (in Ecology use)   an animal leaves its home because the habitat is no longer ideal for them and they need to find a more suitable environment  
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Population Density   the concentration of individuals within a species in a specific geographic locale  
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Limiting factor   anything that constrains a population's size and slows or stops it from growing  
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Carrying Capacity   the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation  
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Natural Selection (in Ecology use)   the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change  
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Adaptation (both in Ecology and Biology use)   a change or the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.  
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Niche (in Ecology use)   a position or role taken by a particular kind of organism within its community  
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Competition (in Ecology use)   interaction between organisms, populations, or species, in which birth, growth and death depend on gaining a share of a limited environmental resource.  
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Preditation   a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism  
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Mutualism   a type of symbiotic relationship where all species involved benefit from their interactions  
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Commensalism   an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm.  
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Parasitism   relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes without killing the host organism  
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Parasite   an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other's expense  
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Host   an organism that harbours a parasite and supplies it with nutrients, the organism wanted by the parasite  
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Succession   the process by which a plant or animal community successively gives way to another until a stable climax is reached  
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Primary Succession   happens when a new patch of land is created or exposed for the first time  
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Pioneer Species   hardy species which are the first to colonize barren environments or previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems that have been disrupted, such as by fire  
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Secondary Succession   occurs in an area that had previously been inhabited but experienced a disturbance, such as a wildfire  
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Producer   an organism that makes its own food  
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Consumer   an organism that depends on producers to consume or eat  
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Herbivore   an organism that eats plants only  
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Carnivore   an organism that depends on herbivores for their meal or food  
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Omnivore   an organism that eats both meat and plants, not herbivore, nor carnivore  
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Scavenger   an organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant material  
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Decomposer   an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.  
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Food Chain   describes how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem  
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Food Web   a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.  
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Energy Pyramid   a model that shows the flow of energy from one trophic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem  
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Nitrogen Fixation   the chemical processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into organic compounds, especially by certain microorganisms as part of the nitrogen cycle.  
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Biome   a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra.  
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Climate   long-term, typical atmospheric conditions in an area, such as temperature and rainfall  
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Desert   any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation  
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Rainforest   very high annual rainfall, high average temperatures, nutrient-poor soil, and high levels of biodiversity (species richness)  
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Emergent Layer   The top layer of a rainforest  
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Canopy   the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns  
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Understory   a layer of vegetation beneath the main canopy of a forest.  
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Grassland   a large open area of a country covered with grass, especially one used for grazing. "rough grassland"  
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Savanna   a grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions, with few trees.  
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Deciduous Tree   "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn  
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Boreal Forest   generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches  
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Coniferous Tree   small, waxy and usually narrow leaves (needles or flat scales)  
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Tundra   the coldest of all the biomes  
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Permafrost   a permanently frozen layer below Earth's surface  
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Estuary   a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean  
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Intertidal Zone   the area where the ocean meets the land between high and low tides  
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Neritic Zone   shallow marine environment extending from mean low water down to 200-metre (660-foot) depths, generally corresponding to the continental shelf  
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Biogeography   the branch of biology that deals with the geographical distribution of plants and animals  
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Continental Drift   the concept that the world's continents once were a single mass and have since drifted to their present positions  
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Dispersal   the action or process of distributing things or people over a wide area  
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Exotic Species   a plant species or an animal species that is non-native  
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Point Source   a single identifiable localised source of something  
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Nonpoint Source   a source of pollution that are issues, from widely distributed or pervasive environmental elements  
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Biodegradable   (of a substance or object) capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms  
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Natural Resource   any material, substance, or organism found in nature that is useful to people  
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Soil Conservation   the protection of soil from erosion and other types of deterioration, so as to maintain soil fertility and productivity  
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Crop Rotation   the practice of planting different crops sequentially on the same plot of land to improve soil health, optimize nutrients in the soil, and combat pest and weed pressure  
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Contour Plowing   follows the contours of hills and slopes, rather than orienting crop rows up and down a slope  
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Conservation Plowing   a method used by farmers to reduce soil erosion between crop harvesting and next crop planting  
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Biodiversity   the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem  
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Keystone Species   an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem  
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Endangered Species   any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat  
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Threaten Species   any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future  
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Extinction   the full or complete wipe-out of a population or species, or, the dying out or extermination of a species  
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Habitat Destruction   the elimination or alteration of the conditions necessary for animals and plants to survive  
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Habitat Fragmentation   the process during which a large expanse of habitat is transformed into a number of smaller patches of smaller total area isolated from each other by a matrix of habitats unlike the origina  
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Poaching   the illegal trafficking and killing of wildlife  
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Captive Breeding   the breeding of wild animals in places such as zoos, especially animals which have become rare in the wild.  
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