Lesson 1 & 2 Vocab
What are abiotic and biotic factors?
Abiotic factors: Non-living things in the environment.
Biotic factors: The parts of a habitat that are or were once alive and that interact with an organism.
What is a Neuron?
A cell that carries information through the nervous system.
How do birth and death rates impact a population?
When the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the population increases. When the death rate is higher than the birth rate, the population decreases. When both rates are about the same, the population is stable.
Do the number of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms remain constant?
Yes
What are regulators?
Parts of the body that help maintain other body systems.
What is a community?
All the different populations that live together in an area.
What is a Negative Feedback?
A process in which a system is turned off by the condition it produces.
What 2 ways can a producer make its own food?
Through photosynthesis and chemosynthesis.
What breaks down fixed nitrogen back to free nitrogen? Where does the free nitrogen go?
Bacteria. The free nitrogen returns to the atmosphere.
What is the path that a nerve impulse will take?
Dendrite, axon, axon tip, synapse, dendrite
What is a decomposer?
An organism that gets energy by breaking down biotic wastes and dead organisms and returns raw materials to the soil and water.
What is a Reflex?
An automatic response that occurs rapidly and without conscious control.
What happens to the amount of available energy as we get closer to the top predator in a food chain, food web, or energy pyramid?
The amount of energy available decreases as it gets closer to the top predator.
How is water cycled through the processes of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation?
Liquid water molecules heat up and turn into water vapor that rises (evaporation). The water vapor is cooled in the atmosphere and returns to a liquid state (condensation). The condensing water vapor collects as clouds that become heavy and drop as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc.)
What is the main function of the endocrine system?
Releases hormones and controls various processes throughout the body.
What are limiting factors?
An environmental factor that causes a population to stop growing or to decrease in size.
What is Law of Conservation of Energy?
When one form of energy is transformed to another, no energy is lost in the process.
What are the levels of the organization in an ecosystem from smallest to largest?
Organism, Population, Community, Ecosystem
How is nitrogen “fixed” so that it can be used by organisms?
They are fixed by bacteria or lightning.
What makes up the peripheral nervous system?
It is composed of autonomic and somatic nervous systems.
What does an energy pyramid show?
It shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web.
What is Law of Conversation of Mass?
Matter is neither created nor destroyed during any chemical or physical change.
How can food and water impact the growth of a population positively or negatively?
Food and water can affect a population positively by making it stable. Food and water can also affect the population negatively by causing the population to decrease.
What happens to matter and energy when it is a part of a closed versus an open system?
Matter and energy remains constant in a closed system. In an open system energy and matter can increase or decrease.
What body part links the endocrine system interact with the nervous system?
The hypothalamus