Vocabulary
The study of relationships between organisms and their environment
What is ecology
The main energy source for almost all ecosystems
What is the Sun?
A relationship where both organisms benefit
What is mutualism?
The cycle that includes evaporation, precipitation, and condensation
What is the water cycle?
All the biotic and abiotic parts of a given area
What is an ecosystem?
The non-living parts of an ecosystem
What are abiotic factors?
An organism that makes its own food
What is a producer?
A relationship where one is helped and one is harmed
What is parasitism?
Plants use this gas during photosynthesis
What is carbon dioxide?
The maximum number of individuals an area can support
What is carrying capacity?
A group of the same species in one area
What is a population?
An organism that eats only plants
What is an herbivore or primary consumer?
Two wolves competing for a mate is an example of this
What is competition?
The cycle where bacteria fix nitrogen into usable forms
What is the nitrogen cycle?
Populations grow slowly at first, then more rapidly
What is exponential growth?
A feeding level in a food chain
What is a trophic level?
The percentage of energy passed between trophic levels
What is 10%?
A bird builds a nest in a tree, and the tree is unaffected
What is commensalism?
Combustion releases this gas into the atmosphere
What is carbon dioxide?
A graph that levels off due to limiting factors
What is logistic growth?
The full collection of all ecosystems on Earth
What is the biosphere?
A diagram showing many interconnected food chains
What is a food web?
The relationship where one organism hunts and eats another
What is predation?
The cycle that involves plants releasing oxygen and animals using it
What is the oxygen cycle?
Two examples of limiting factors
What are food, space, water, disease?