Chapter 2-3.1 Vocab

Question 0

biosphere

Answer 0

the protein of Earth that supports living things

Question 1

ecology

Answer 1

the study of interactions that take place between organisms and their environment

Question 2

abiotic factors

Answer 2

the nonliving parts of an organism’s environment

Question 3

biotic factor

Answer 3

all the living organisms that inhabit an environment

Question 4

population

Answer 4

a group of organisms, all of the same species, which interbreed and live in the same area at the same time

Question 5

ecosystem

Answer 5

is made up of interacting populations in a biological community and the communities abiotic factors

Question 6

biological community

Answer 6

is made up of interacting populations in a certain area at a certain time

Question 7

habitat

Answer 7

the place where an organism lives out its life

Question 8

niche

Answer 8

the role or position a depicted has in its environment

Question 9

symbiosis

Answer 9

a relationship in which there is a close and permanent association between organisms of different species

Question 10

commensalism

Answer 10

one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor benefitted

Question 11

mutualism

Answer 11

both species benefit from symbiosis

Question 12

parasitism

Answer 12

a member of one species benefits at the expense of another species

Question 13

autotroph

Answer 13

an organism that makes its own energy

Question 14

heterotroph

Answer 14

an organism that cannot make its own food and feeds on other organisms

Question 15

decomposer

Answer 15

a heterotroph that breaks down and releases nutrients from dead organisms

Question 16

food chain

Answer 16

a simple model that scientists use to show how matter an energy move through an ecosystem

Question 17

tropic level

Answer 17

organism that represents a feeding ate in the passing of energy and material in the food chain

Question 18

biomass

Answer 18

the total weight of living matter in a tropic level

Question 19

food web

Answer 19

a model that shows all the possible feeding relationships at each trophic level in a community

Question 20

limiting factor

Answer 20

any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms

Question 21

tolerance

Answer 21

the ability of an organism to withstand fluctuations in biotic and abiotic environmental factors

Question 22

succession

Answer 22

the orderly, natural changes and species replacements that take place in the communities of an ecosystem

Question 23

primary succession

Answer 23

the colonization of barren land by communities of organisms

Question 24

climax community

Answer 24

primary succession slows and results in a stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change; it may last for hundreds of years

Question 25

secondary succession

Answer 25

the sequence of changes that take place after an existing community is severely disrupted