Foundations of Ecology
This is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.
What is Ecology?
Organisms that can make their own food, also known as primary producers.
What are autotrophs?
An organism that obtains energy by consuming other organisms; another name for a consumer.
What is a heterotroph?
An interaction where one organism captures and feeds on another organism.
What is predation?
A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the interaction.
What is mutualism?
All of the living organisms that inhabit an environment, such as plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria.
What are biotic factors?
The process by which autotrophs convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy.
What is photosynthesis?
Organisms that obtain their energy by eating only plants.
What are herbivores?
The term for an animal that is hunted or caught for food.
What is prey?
A linear series of events in which one organism eats another to obtain energy.
What is a food chain?
The non-living parts of an organism's habitat, such as temperature, water, and sunlight.
What are abiotic factors?
The process by which certain bacteria use chemical energy, rather than sunlight, to produce carbohydrates.
What is chemosynthesis?
An organism that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals.
What is an omnivore?
A close interaction between two species that has evolved over a long period of time.
What is symbiosis?
A complex network of interrelated food chains within an ecological community
What is a food web?
A biological community of interacting organisms together with their physical environment.
What is an ecosystem?
This natural warming process occurs when solar radiation is trapped by gases in Earth's atmosphere.
What is the greenhouse effect?
A carnivore that specifically feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.
What is a scavenger?
This type of symbiotic relationship benefits one species while leaving the other neither harmed nor helped.
What is commensalism?
A single species that exerts a disproportionate influence on the survival of many other species within an ecosystem
What is a keystone species?
The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period of time.
What is climate?
These organisms store food made from chemical energy or photosynthesis for other animals to use when eaten.
What are primary producers?
While detritivores feed on dead remains, these organisms specifically break down dead organic matter to return nutrients to the ecosystem.
What are decomposers?
A symbiotic interaction where one organism benefits while the other organism is actively harmed.
What is parasitism?
This ecological rule states that no two species can occupy the exact same niche in the same habitat at the same time.
What is the Competitive Exclusion Principle?