Intro to Ecology
How organisms interact with one another and their environment
What is Ecology?
An interaction in which one organism kills another for food.
What is predation?
An organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms.
What is a decomposer?
This is a way to show how energy in a food web is allocated. Usually there is a large base and a pointed top.
What is an energy pyramid?
Organisms of the same species in the same area
What is a Population?
The role that an organisms plays/it's way of life
A relationship between two species in which one species benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
What is commensalism?
These organisms produce energy through the use of photosynthesis.
What are Producers?
These are most likely on the bottom of every energy pyramid, because there are so many and they get their energy directly from the sun
What is a producer?
All of the non-living parts of an ecosystem (ex: soil, rainfall, temperature, etc.)
What is Abiotic?
In order to coexist, species have no overlap in their niches. What is this called?
What is niche partitioning?
These TWO things can lead to growth in a population
What are Births and Immigration?
Energy pyramids get _________ as you move from producers to tertiary consumers.
What is smaller?
The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving surroundings. This includes abiotic and biotic factors.
What is an ecosystem?
When species niches overlap and they fight for resources
What is interspecific competition?
The maximum number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support at a given time
These organisms are typically at the top of the food chain. They are called ____________ consumers.
What is tertiary/quarternary?
What is the percentage of energy that is passed along as it moves from producer to primary consumer to secondary consumer?
What is 10%?
All ecosystems on Earth
What is a biosphere?
When one species completely takes over an area or resource, leaving no room for another species
What is Total Exclusion?
In this type of growth, population size increases until a resource becomes limited and the population reaches it's carrying capacity
Logistic Growth
What do the arrows indicate in a food chain/web?
What is Energy Flow?
Where does the 90% of energy go to that does not get passed on to the consumer? (Two things!)
What is loss to heat, biomass and waste