Biology Chapter 2: Principles of Ecology – Flashcards
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ecology
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the scientific discipline in which the relationships among living organisms and the interactions the organisms have with their environments are studied
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biosphere
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the portion of Earth that supports life
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biotic factors
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the living factors in an organism's environment
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abiotic factors
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the nonliving factors in an organism's environment
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population
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individual organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location at the same time
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biological community
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a group of interacting populations that occupy the same geographic area at the same time
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ecosystem
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a biological commuunity and all of the biotic and abiotic factors that affect it
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biome
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a large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities
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habitat
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where an organism lives
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niche
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a role or position that an organism has in its environment
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predation
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the act of one organism consuming an other organism for food
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symbiosis
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the close relationship that forms when two or more species live together
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mutualism
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a relationship between two or more organisms that live closely together and benefit from each other
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commensalism
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a relationship where one organism benefits and the other is neither hurt nor helped
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parasitism
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a relationship where one organism benefits at the expense of another
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autotroph
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an organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food
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heterotroph
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an organism that gets its energy requirements from consuming other organisms
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herbivore
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a heterotroph that only eats plants
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carnivore
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a heterotroph that preys on other heterotrophs
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omnivore
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a heterotroph that eats both plants and animals
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detritivore
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an organism which eat fragments of dead matter in an ecosystem and returns nutrients to the environment
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trophic level
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step in a food chain or web
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food chain
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a simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem
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food web
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a model representing the many interconnected food chains and pathyways in which energy flows through a group of organisms
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biomass
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the total mass of living matter at a trophic level
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matter
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anything that has mass and takes up space
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nutrient
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a chemical substance that an organism must obtain from its environment
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biogeochemical cycle
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the exchange of matter through the biosphere
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nitrogen fixation
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the process of capturing and converting nitrogen into a form that is usable by plants
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denitrification
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the conversion by bacteria of fixed nitrogen compounds to nitrogen gas
