Ecology Vocab
What is the study of how living things interact with one another and with their physical environment?
Ecology
When a hawk captures a rabbit to eat, what special nutritional relationship am I?
Predation or predator
The hottest and driest Biome.
Desert
The only flying mammals
Bats
What is the term for animals that are attached to a single location but can move the environment toward themselves for the purpose of trapping food?
Sessile
This mammal group is identified by raising their young in special abdominal pouches.
Marsupials
This mammal group includes cattle, sheep and goats.
Bovids
All ecosystems fall into one of two general categories: aquatic and _____________ .
Terrestrial
When the fungus, wheat rust, destroys crops by stealing nutrients and even killing the crops, what special nutritional relationship am I?
Parasitism or parasite
Has long, harsh winters with freezing temperatures, snow ice and high winds.
Arctic tundra
Slowest moving, arboreal mammal
Sloths
What is the term for an animal with a notochord or backbone and an endoskeleton?
Vertebrate
This mammal group includes gnawing animals like mice, beavers, and squirrels.
Rodents
Blue whales are part of this mammal group.
Baleen whales
What is the ecosystem’s ability to with and recover from its changes?
Stability
When a hawk and an eagle are going for the same road, what special nutritional relationship am I?
Competition
Found near the equator and has abundant rainfall.
Tropical rain forest
Largest living marsupials
Kangaroos
Most of the vertebrates are tetrapods because they have four _________?
appendages or limbs
This mammal group includes hoofed animals.
Ungulates
This mammal group includes mostly arboreal mammals that have five fingers and five toes.
Primates
What is the maximum population size that the ecosystem can currently support?
Carrying capacity
What is an organism’s function or occupation?
Niche
Includes prairies, Russian steppes, and Argentinian pampas.
Grasslands
Largest carnivore on land
Bears
What is the structure, formed from tissues of a fetus and the mother, that nourishes a developing mammal embryo?
placenta
This mammal group includes shrews, moles and hedgehogs.
Insectivores
Dugongs and manatees belong to this aquatic mammal group.
Sea cows
In a coral reef what level of ecology do clownfish represent?
Population
When a bee feeds on the nectar of a flower and then pollen that sticks to its legs is transferred to another flower, what special nutritional relationship am I?
Mutualism
Has well defined seasons and sufficient precipitation to support large trees and diverse animal species.
Temperate deciduous forest
Largest animal of all
Blue whale
What is a species that still exists on Earth today, but is in danger of dying out called?
Endangered
Primates without tails belong to this mammal group.
Apes
This mammal group includes hares, rabbits and pikas.
Lagomorphs
What type of marine ecosystem occurs where nutrient-rich fresh water from rivers meets and mixes with seawater?
Estuary
What is a model showing all possible feeding relationships at each tropic level?
Food web
Found at high mountain altitudes.
Alpine tundra
Largest rodent
Capybara
What type of body symmetry do mammals have?
Bilateral symmetry
This mammal group includes animals that chew the cud.
Ruminants
Some mammals have antlers or horns. Which are the ones that are solid bone and are shed annually?
Antlers
What is the term for animals that are active during the day in their environment?
Diurnal
When orchids and mosses grow on the limbs of trees or large plants and cause no harm, what special nutritional relationship am I?
Commensalism
In the aquatic biome what is the relatively shallow ocean zone that extends to the edge of the continental shelf?
Neritic zone
Egg laying, venomous mammal
Platypus
What is the term for animals that regulate their body temperature and can maintain a stable body temperature regardless of their environment?
Homeothermic
This mammal group includes echidna and platypus and are grouped together because they both lay eggs.
Oviparous
This group of mammals are odd toed hoofed animals such as horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses.
Perissodactyls