ECOSYSTEM
A series of growth stages in the lifespan of every living organism.
What if Lifecycle
Green plants that make their own food using the sun's energy and photosynthesis.
What is Producers?
An area where rivers meet and join.
What is the Delta?
The scientific study of plants.
What is Botany?
What is abiotic?
The actual, or estimated, number of a particular type of organism living in a defined area.
What is Population Density?
The breaking down of dead organisms, so they can be used by plants.
What is Decomposition?
An unusual foothill habitat, or biotic zone, of the Sierra Nevada and Coastal Range. Mostly covered by scrub of entangled evergreen bushes and few trees.
What is Chaparral?
Plants that do not lose their leaves annually.
What is Evergreen?
The struggle between two or more plant or animal species for a common resource.
What is Competition?
The maximum number of plants and animals that can be supported by a habitat or environment.
What is Carrying Capacity?
A very small life form that can be seen by humans only with the aid of a microscope.
What is a Microorganism?
A permanent freshwater wetland with few trees and many aquatic plants, like tule.
What is Marsh?
Midsize bushes and trees. Also, the middle layer of riparian habitat.
What is Scrub?
A plant or wild animal occurring only in a certain geographic location on Earth.
What is endemic?
The variety and abundance of different species of plants and animals.
What is Biodiversity?
An organism which feeds upon the tissues or fluids of another animal, or host. It is harmful to the host, but generally does not kill the host, as that would destroy its food supply.
What is a Parasite?
Of, or pertaining to, along, or associated with freshwater rivers and streams.
What is Riparian?
A simple, slow growing plant-like organism made up of an alga and a fungus that grow in symbiotic association on a solid surface.
What is Lichen?
An introduced, non-native plant or animal whose population growth threatens to cause harm to native plant and animal populations, the environment, the economy and/or human health.
What is Invasive Species?
Specific location of a specific community, or ecosystem, of interrelated life forms. California has the most of any state.
What is Biotic Zone?
Organisms that eat other organisms to get their energy.
What are Consumers?
A rare seasonal wetland habitat occurring on grassland, where an impenetrable layer of soil ponds rainwater in winter and spring. Highly adapted plant and animal species live here.
What is Vernal Pool?
Any type of interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association.
What is Symbiotic?
A continental highway in the sky for birds.
What is Pacific Flyway?