Lesson 1
All the members of one species in a particular area
What is a population?
An organism's specific role in its habitat; the unique way an organism survives, obtains food and shelter, and avoids danger in its habitat
What is a niche?
A model that shows how food and energy is passed from one organism to another in an ecosystem
What is a food chain?
All the living and nonliving things in an area that interact with each other
What is an ecosystem?
physical place where a population or organism lives
What is a habitat?
the gradual process of change in an ecosystem brought about by one community replacing another
What is succession?
2 reasons that a population may increase
more organisms move to the area and more organisms are born
An organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms Examples: worms, fungi (mushrooms), and bacteria
What is a decomposer or detritivore?
The non-living parts of an organism's ecosystem
What are abiotic factors?
An organism that gets energy by feeding on other organisms; can't make its own food
What is a consumer?
Name the 2 aquatic biomes.
What are freshwater and saltwater?
Name a result of overpopulation.
What is overcrowding, lack of resources, or unhealthy environment?
Why do the levels in an energy pyramid get smaller as they move up?
The organisms in each level have less energy than the ones below.
An organism that uses sun or chemical energy to create its own food; they are the source of all food in an ecosystem
What is a producer?
A group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms
What is a biome?
Name the 4 terrestrial biomes.
What are forest, grasslands, tundra, and desert?
Name 3 limiting factors.
What are space, food, water, shelter, disease, drought, predators, and hunting?
Explain the difference between photosynthesis and chemosynthesis.
Photosynthesis uses light energy to make food, but chemosynthesis uses chemical energy to make food.
Things that prevent a population from increasing
What are limiting factors?
All the different populations that live together in an ecosystem at the same time
What is a community?
Name the main 5 abiotic factors in an ecosystem.
What are water, sunlight, temperature, soil, and atmosphere?
Name the 3 types of symbiotic relationships and give an example of each.
mutualism-leafcutter ant and fungus, parasitism-tick and dog, commensalism-cocklebur and human
3 ways carbon dioxide can be released into the environment in the carbon cycle
What are cellular respiration, decomposition, and combustion?
The largest number of organisms of one species that an ecosystem can support
What is carrying capacity?
The relationship between two species that live in close association with each other and interact
What is a symbiotic relationship?