Ecology
The study of the interactions between living and nonliving things
what is ecology
a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
What is a food chain?
The principal means by which oxygen is taken from the air
What is respiration
members of the same species competing for a resource
What is intraspecific competition?
The three types of community interactions
What are competition, predation, and symbiosis
any living part of an environment
what are biotic factors?
each step of food transfer from one level to another
What is trophic level?
The principal means by which oxygen is restored to the air
What is photosynthesis
the three basic kinds of symbiosis
What are mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism
this happens when two populations of different species compete for the same food source or their niches overlap
What is competitive exclusion?
What are abiotic factors?
a measure of the total amount of living tissue of organisms within a trophic level in an ecosystem
What is Biomass?
What is carbon dioxide?
natural disturbances, such as fires or volcanic eruptions can result in this
What is succession?
a new community that arises in an area with no soil
what is primary succession?
The narrowest subgroup studied by ecologists
What is a population?
the rate at which producers in an ecosystem build biomass
What is primary productivity?
The process by which nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into nitrogen-containing molecules
What is nitrogen fixation?
The range or area occupied by a population is this
what is geographic distribution?
The community, after succession ends, that is similar to the one before a disturbance and reaches stability
What is a climax community?
The broadest subgroup of ecological study
What is a biosphere?
this is lost each time it moves up a trophic level in an ecosystem
What is energy?
a mineral found in rocks that is released through weathering and erosion
What is phosphorus?
the maximum number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported by an environment is called this
what is carrying capacity?
Ecologists describe populations using these three terms