Vocab 1.1
Scientific discipline in which the relationship among living organisms and the interaction they have with their environment
Ecology
Heterotroph that eats both plants and animals
Omnivore
Anything that takes up space and has mass
Matter
Portion of the earth that supports life
Biosphere
Organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to make food
Autotroph
Living factors in an organism’s environment
Biotic factors
Organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances in order to make food
Autotrophs
Capture and conversion of nitrogen into a form that is useable by plants
Nitrogen fixation
Act of one organism pursuing and consuming a other organism for food
Predation
Heterotrophs that eat only plants
Herbivore
Ability of an organism to survive when subjected to biotic and abiotic factors
Tolerance
Heterotrophs that eat other animals
Carnivore
Process in which bacteria convert fixed nitrogen back into nitrogen gas
Denitrification
Area where an organism lives
Habitat
Each step in a food chain or food web
Trophic level
relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of the other
Parasitism
Simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem
Food chain
Chemical substance that an organism needs to obtain from its environment in order to survive
Nutrient
Biological community and all the abiotic factors that affect it
Ecosystem
A model that represents the many inrtconnected food chains and pathways in which energy flows through a group of organisms
Food web
Any abiotic or biotic factor that restricts the numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms
Limiting factor
Total mass of living at each trophic level
Biomass
Exchange of matter through the biosphere
Biogeochemical cycle
Large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities
Biome
Heterotrophs that eat fragments of dead matter
Detrivore