Vocabulary
Organisms which produce food or biomass through the process of photosynthesis
What are producers?
Herbivores which consume only plants
What are primary consumers?
Describes how organisms match specific environmental conditions and respond to distribution of resources and competitors
What is a niche?
Physical change through time
What is temporal change?
large, naturally occurring ecological levels occupying a major habitat: include aquatic, forests, grassland, and wetland
What are biomes?
Chemical substance required by an organism for growth, reproduction and maintenance
What is a nutrient?
Plants found in an area
What is flora?
Consume decayed plants and animals
What are detritovores?
When one species kills another for food.
What is predation?
A linear representation which shows the flow of energy from one organism to another
What is a food chain?
Process by which ecosystems advance toward a climax community through development of stages over time
What is ecological succession?
Gasses surrounding the earth from surface to space
What is the atmosphere?
Individual members of a population
What is an organism?
Non-living factors
What is abiotic?
Organisms which obtain food and energy through the consumption of other organisms
What are consumers?
When two species benefit from an ecological interaction
What is mutualism?
Exchange or conversion of nutrients from one form to another through biological and chemical process
What is nutrient cycling?
Development of vegetation in a community to a steady state over a period of time
What is a climax community?
Study of the relationship between an organism and its environment
What is ecology?
Unit expressing a ratio of a solute in a solution
What is Parts Per Thousand (ppt)?
Any living organism
What is biotic?
Any part of the earth suitable to support a species permanently or temporarily for migratory species
What is a habitat?
Struggle between two organisms for the same resources, such as food, space or mates
What is competition?
Effort by humans to manage organisms and their environments.
What is ecosystem management?
Assemblage of different populations of flora or fauna
What is a community?
Smaller community where biotic and abiotic elements interact within a biome
What are ecosystems?
Animals found in an area
What are fauna?
Omnivores which consume plants and animal; carnivores which consume only animala
What are secondary consumers?
When one species benefits while another is unaffected
What is commensalism?
Responsibly using and conserving resources in a way which supports long-term ecological balance
What is sustainability?
Group of organisms of the same species occupying a particular space at the same time
What is a population?
Sum of the surfaces, atmosphere and hydrosphere of the earth which is occupied by living organisms
What is the biosphere?
All the bodies of water on the Earth
What is the Hydrosphere?