Ecology Basics
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
What is ecosystem?
The envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet.
What is atmosphere?
The process by which green plants and other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
What is photosynthesis?
A measurement of how many people live in a specific area.
What is population density?
The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.
What is pollution?
A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.
What is biome?
The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms.
What is biosphere?
Each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.
What is trophic levels?
A variable in a system that can affect the output, value, level, or product of that system.
What is limiting factors?
The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.
What is ecological footprint?
The living and non-living components of an ecosystem that work together to create a unique environment.
What is biotic/abiotic factors?
The total amount of water on a planet, including water that is on the surface, underground, and in the air.
What is hydrosphere?
A series of chemical reactions that take place in cells to break down glucose and produce ATP.
What is cellular respiration?
A metric that measures the percentage change in a variable over a specific period of time.
What is growth rate?
Pollution that comes from a single, identifiable source, such as a pipe, ditch, ship, or factory smokestack.
What is point source pollution?
Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
What is symbiosis?
Any of the almost spherical concentric regions of matter that make up the earth and its atmosphere.
What is geosphere?
A natural process that describes how carbon moves between the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, soils, living things, and minerals.
What is carbon cycle?
The number or quantity of people or things that can be conveyed or held by a vehicle or container.
What is carrying capacity?
The amount of a renewable resource that can be harvested without reducing its ability to replenish itself.
What is sustainable yield?
The process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over time.
What is ecological succession?
The rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
What is lithosphere?
The process by which nitrogen moves through the atmosphere, soil, plants, animals, and microorganisms.
What is nitrogen cycle?
The study of how and why populations change in size and structure over time.
What is population dynamics?
Farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs.
What is sustainable cultivation?