Parts of an Ecosystem
The term to refer to the non-living part of an ecosystem.
What is abiotic?
The process by which plants capture the sun's energy and turn it into glucose and oxygen.
What is photosynthesis?
A linear, straight-line model showing who eats what
What is a food chain?
The solid, rocky outer layer of the Earth, including the crust and soil.
What is the lithosphere?
The maximum population size of a species that a given ecosystem can sustainably support.
What is carrying capacity?
The chemical process where consumers break down glucose and oxygen to release energy, carbon dioxide, and water.
What is cellular respiration?
A complex, interconnected network of multiple feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
What is a food web?
All the water on, above, and below Earth's surface.
What is the hydrosphere?
A non-native species that is introduced to a new area and causes ecological or economic harm.
What is an invasive species?
Any organism that performs photosynthesis (e.g. green plants).
What is a producer (or autotroph)?
The percentage of energy lost as it moves from one trophic level to the next in an energy pyramid.
What is 90% (leaving only 10% retained)?
A species interaction where both organisms benefit.
What is mutualism?
The layer of gases surrounding Earth that provides oxygen, traps heat, and blocks harmful UV radiation.
What is the atmosphere?
The clearing or long-term removal of trees and forests, which destroys habitats, accelerates soil erosion, and reduces the number of organisms absorbing carbon dioxide.
What is deforestation?
Any organism that must eat other organisms to obtain nutrients.
What is a consumer (or heterotroph)?
The series of processes that moves water through the environment.
What is the water cycle?
An example of this symbiotic relationship is a brainworm in a moose or a tick on a cat, where one benefits and the other is harmed.
What is parasitism?
The narrow zone on Earth where all life exists, spanning across the other three spheres.
What is the biosphere?
An environmental factor—such as a severe winter storm, forest fire, or volcanic eruption—that affects a population's size regardless of how crowded that population is.
What is a density-independent factor?
Organisms that break down dead material and waste, recycling nutrients back into the soil.
What are decomposers?
Major natural storage reservoirs for carbon, including coal, oil, natural gas, limestone, and ocean sediments.
What are carbon deposits (or carbon sinks)?
A species interaction where one organism benefits, while the other is neither harmed or benefits.
What is commensalism?
Gas that makes up roughly 79% of Earth's atmosphere.
What is nitrogen?
An environmental factor—such as disease, predation, or competition for food—that limits population growth more intensely as the population density increases.
What is a density-dependent factor?