Vocabulary Part 1
What is an organism?
A living thing
What is ecology?
The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environments
What is the difference between immigration and emigration?
Immigration means moving into a population; emigration means moving out of a population
What is a consumer?
What are the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Conservation of Energy?
Matter/Energy cannot be created or destroyed
What are resources?
The specific things that an organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce
What are populations?
Define "limiting factor"
Something that causes a population to stop growing
What is a producer?
An organism that can make its own food, typically by using energy from the sun to perform photosynthesis
Explain the water cycle (don't just list the three stages)
Liquid water on earth's surface evaporates into water vapor. As it rises in the atmosphere, it cools and condenses into small droplets. When those droplets get too heavy, they fall back to earth as precipitation.
What are communities?
Populations living in a particular area
What are biotic factors?
The parts of a habitat that are living
Define "carrying capacity"
The largest population that an area can support
What is a decomposer?
An organism that breaks down biotic wastes and dead organisms, returning raw materials to an ecosystem
Explain the carbon cycle (including the role of plants and animals) and the corresponding oxygen cycle
CO2 is taken in by plants from the air and used to produce glucose through photosynthesis. Oxygen is released as a byproduct. Animals eat plants and take in the carbon and breathe in oxygen. CO2 is the byproduct of animal respiration, returning it to the air.
What are abiotic factors?
The nonliving parts of an organism's habitat
What is a species?
A group of organisms that are capable of reproducing with each other. OR the bottom level of the taxonomic classification system.
What is the formula for population density?
Population density = number of organisms/area
Identify and define the four classifications of consumers
Herbivores eat plants, Carnivores eat animals, Scavengers eat carcasses, Omnivores eat both plants and animals
What is nitrogen fixation? What causes nitrogen fixation?
The process of changing free nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen (nitrate). It is mostly done by bacteria, but 10% is caused by lightning.
What is a habitat?
The place that an organism lives that provides all its necessary resources
What is an ecosystem?
An area made of a community of populations and various abiotic factors
Identify three influences on the size and growth of a population
Birth/Death rate, immigration/emigration, the availability of food and water, climate/weather, space/shelter
Identify and define the three energy transfer models
Food chains are a series of events in which one organism eats another to obtain energy. Food webs demonstrate how multiple food chains overlap with each other. Energy pyramids designate organisms according to levels with the lowest level having the most energy and the highest level having the least
Explain the nitrogen cycle (including the roles of bacteria, plants/animals, and decomposers).
Free nitrogen (N2) is absorbed into soil where bacteria fixes it into compounds that plants can use to build proteins. Animals receive the nitrogen by eating the plants. When plants and animals die, decomposers return the nitrogen to the soil where bacteria either fixes it or breaks down the compounds back into free nitrogen, returning it to the air.