Basic Ecology Terms
The study of organisms and their environment.
What is ecology
Organisms that make their own food.
What are producers
A simple pathway showing how energy moves from one organism to another.
What is a food chain
The maximum number of individuals an area can support.
What is carrying capacity
The variety of life in an ecosystem.
What is biodiversity
All living and nonliving things interacting in an area.
What is an ecosystem
Organisms that eat other organisms
What are consumers
Multiple connected food chains.
What is a food web
Factors like food and water that limit growth.
What are limiting factors
Pollution and deforestation are examples of this.
What is human impac
A group of the same species living in one area.
What is a population
Organisms that recycle nutrients by breaking down dead matter.
What are decomposers
Levels of feeding positions in a food chain.
What are trophic levels
Removing predators often causes this population to grow rapidly.
What is the prey population
High biodiversity makes ecosystems more this
What is stable
All different populations living together.
What is a community
Producers use this process to make food.
What is photosynthesis
Energy decreases at each trophic level because it is lost as this.
What is heat
Population size is regulated by birth rates and this other factor.
What is death rate
Ecosystems must remain balanced to maintain this overall condition.
What is sustainability
The part of Earth where life exists.
What is the biosphere
Decomposers return this essential substance to the soil.
What are nutrients
Only about this percent of energy moves to the next trophic level.
What is 10%
When a population exceeds carrying capacity, it may experience this.
What is a population crash
When humans remove one species from a food web, it can cause widespread changes known as this
What is a ripple effect (or trophic cascade)