Unit 14 – Ecology Vocabulary – Flashcards
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A diagram showing all of the interconnected food chains in an ecosystem
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Food Web
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Large variety of organisms and species in an ecosystem
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Biodiversity
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An organism that breaks down dead organisms
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Decomposer
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A diagram that shows how energy decreases as it travels through the trophic levels of a food chain
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Energy Pyramid
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A diagram showing a single pathway of energy transfer an ecosystem
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Food Chain
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An organism that eats both plants and animals
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Omnivore
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An organism that eats only other animals
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Carnivore
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An organism that eats only other plants
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Herbivore
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When two organisms fight over the same resource
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Competition
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All of the different populations of organisms living in an area.
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Community
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All of the living space on earth.
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Biosphere
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Living and nonliving things interacting in an area
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Ecosystem
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All of the members of the same species in an area.
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Population
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The amount of energy that is transferred from one trophic level to another
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10% rule
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The organism that is hunted
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Prey
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The organism that hunts others for food.
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Predator
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A trait that helps an organism survive.
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Adaptation
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The scarcest resource that limits a populations size.
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Limiting Factor
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The largest population size an ecosystem can hold.
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Carrying Capacity
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A type of relationship where one organism benefits while the other organism is harmed.
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Parasitism
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A type of symbiosis where one species benefits and the other is not helped or harmed.
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Commensalism
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A type of symbiosis where two organisms benefit from their relationship with each other.
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Mutualism
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A relationship between two different species living closely together
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Symbiosis
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Living part of the environment; includes anything made by a living organism
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Biotic
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Non living part of the environment
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Abiotic
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The study of how living things interact with other living things and the environment.
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Ecology
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Chemicals that living things need and use to live and grow. An example is nitrogen.
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Nutrients
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Any organism able to make its own food (aka Producer)
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Autotroph
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An organism that has to eat other living things to survive (aka consumer)
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Heterotroph
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Used by organisms to do everything it needs to live; energy is NOT recycled in an ecosystem
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Energy
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A type of sugar created by plants to store energy from the sun.
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Glucose
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Third level consumer. Often top of the food chain
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Tertiary Consumer
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The 1st level consumer. Eats producers
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Primary Consumer
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Eats 1st level consumers. Often is a predator and a prey
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Secondary Consumer
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4th level consumers. Food chains don't always go this far
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Quaternary Consumer
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An animal that eats other dead animals.
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Scavenger
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one individual living thing
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organism
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all of the life processes (chemical reactions) occurring within a living organism to maintain life
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metabolism
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a microscopic organism that can take nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and convert it into a solid form for plants to use.
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nitrogen-fixing bacteria
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the development of communities in an area with no soil or biotic elements (e.g. bare rock).
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primary succession
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a stable, mature community in a successive series that has reached equilibrium.
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climax community
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process by which pollutants become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web
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biological magnification
