Who's the Big Dog?
An animal that eats both plants and animals.
What is an omnivore?
Nonliving components of an environment
What are abiotic factors?
Gradual change in living communities
What is ecological succession?
Also known as heterotrophs, these are organisms that cannot make their own food
What are consumers?
Waterside plants
What is riparian vegetation?
Also known as producers, these are organisms that make their own food
What are Autotrophs?
Living or once-living components of an environment
What are biotic factors?
Succession that begins in an area where no biotic community previously existed
What is primary succession?
I like only plants
What are herbivores?
Scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment
What is ecology?
An organism that breaks down the dead remains of other organisms
What is a decomposer?
A relationship between two species in which both species benefits
What is mutualism?
succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil
What is secondary succession?
A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
What is a food web?
The place where all living organisms exist
What is the biosphere?
Each step in a food chain or food web
What is a trophic level?
A relationship between organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected
What is commensalism?
Relationship in which two species live closely together
What is symbiosis?
This type of consumer is found at the top of the trophic pyramid
What are tertiary consumers?
A characteristic that increases an organisms chance of survival in its habitat
What is an adaptation?
Organism that feeds on plant and animal remains and other dead matter
What is a detritivore?
An organism's particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes a living
What is its niche?
A stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species over time
What is climax community?
This is the chemical process that happens in green plants that allows them to make their own food
What is photosynthesis?
Species such as grasses, weeds, and small plants that quickly move in to a damaged ecosystem that help rebuild the soil after a disruption
What is pioneer species?