Ecology Vocab Flashcards
Ecosystem
All the living things in an area and the way they affect each other and the environment.
Environment
The air, water, and land in or on which people, animals, and plants live. The conditions that affect a plant or animal in a habitat
Habitat
The natural environment in which an animal or plant usually lives
Abiotic factors
Non-living factors in the environment
Biotic factors
Living factors in the environment
Food chain
The flow of energy from organism to organism in a series of feeding relationships.
Food web
The relationship between all the living things in a particular area, when thinking about how they eat each other. (multiple food chains.)
Producer
An organism that is able to manufacture their own food (e.g. by the process of photosynthesis)
Consumer
Organism that must eat other organisms to get energy and nutrients they need.
Interdependence
Depending on each other for survival
Predator
An animal that hunts, kills, and eats other animals
Prey
An animal that is hunted and killed for food by another animal
Competition
A situation in which the various organisms living in the same area try to compete for a limited supply of food, water, space.
Host
A plant or animal that another plant or animal lives on as a parasite.
Parasite
An animal or plant that lives on or in another animal or plant of a different type and feeds from it
