Ecology Flashcards
(27 cards)
Biotic
Relating to living organisms.
Abiotic
Describes the nonliving part of the environment. Including water, rocks, light, and temperature.
Population
A group of organisms that live in the same habitat.
Community
A particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants.
Ecosystem
A community of organisms and their abiotic environment.
Herbivore
An organism that only eats plants.
Carnivore
An organism that eats animals.
Omnivore
An organism that eats plants and animals.
Food chain
the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms
Food web
a diaphragm that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem.
Energy pyramid
a triangular diagram that shows an ecosystems loss of energy, which results as energy passes through the ecoststems food chain.
Carrying Capacity
the largest population that an environment can support at any given time.
Prey
an organism that is killed by another organism
Predator
an organism that eats all or part of another organism
Mutualism
a relationship between species that benefit both species.
Commensalism
a relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected
Parasitism
a relationship between two species in which one species, the parasite, benefits from the other species, the host, which is harmed.
Producers
plants use in sunlight to make food.
Decomposers
Bacteria that break down corpses.
Desert
a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life.
Tundra
a vast, flat, treeless Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen
Temperate deciduous forest
a variety of temperate forest ‘dominated’ by trees that lose their leaves each year.
Tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season
Coniferous forest
a forest consisting of evergreen conifers or cone-bearing trees.