Key Vocabulary
A self-contained living thing.
What is an organism?
Every organism needs this resource to survive, and it is the same for all organisms in the card activity.
What is water?
This interaction happens when organisms rely on the same limited resources.
What is competition?
Resources that control how large a population can become are known by this term.
What are limiting factors?
Two bluebirds try to use the same nesting site. This interaction is occurring.
What is competition?
This is the specific environment where an organism lives.
What is a habitat?
The Sun, shrimp, alpine grass, and mealworms are all examples of this type of resource.
What are food resources?
Mountain lions and coyotes eat the same type of prey, so they compete for this resource.
What is food?
When the availability of resources decreases, competition usually does this.
What is increases?
Japanese beetles and native insects eat the same plant leaves. The invasive beetles can affect native insects in this way.
What is by increasing competition and leaving fewer food resources?
Two or more members of the same species living in the same habitat.
What is a population?
A nest, soil, a river, or a mountain can provide this basic need.
What is shelter?
True or false: Different species can compete if they need the same resource.
What is true?
During a drought, a pond begins to dry up and the frog population decreases. This resource is the limiting factor.
What is water?
A forest contains many different plant, animal, and fungus species. It has a high level of this.
What is biodiversity?
The role an organism has and how it uses resources in its environment.
What is a niche?
Name the three basic resources all organisms need.
What are water, food, and shelter?
Competition becomes stronger when the number of individuals does this and the availability of resources does this.
What is increases; decreases?
A deer population becomes too large for the available grass. This is one likely result.
What is some deer will not get enough food, so survival or population size will decrease?
Bees get nectar from flowers while the flowers are pollinated. This relationship helps both species.
What is mutualism?
Living organisms interacting with one another and with the nonliving parts of their environment.
What is an ecosystem?
Organisms with similar needs compete more often for this reason.
What is because they rely on the same limited resources?
Explain one way competition can limit the number of individuals in a population.
What is fewer organisms get the resources they need, so fewer survive or reproduce?
A river has plenty of food for salmon but very few safe spawning sites. Explain how space can limit the salmon population.
What is only a limited number of salmon can reproduce successfully, so population growth slows?
Invasive bass enter a river, eat young salmon, and consume the same shrimp as adult salmon. Name the two ways the bass can reduce the salmon population.
What are predation and competition for food?