Enviro Summer Vocab

10% Rule

10% Rule

Each trophic level in an ecosystem contains about ten percent of the energy of the level below it, due to the inefficient processes of transferring the energy.

Abiotic

A term used to describe something that is not living.

Ammonia

The compound which can be naturally produced by bacteria and then used by nitrogen fixing bacteria and plants. The nitrogen is used to build cells. NH3

Biogeochemical Cycle

Biome

Biotic

Cellular Respiration

Commensalism

A type of interaction between two species in which one species benefits and the other is unaffected.

Community

the grouping of all the animal and plant species that live in a given ecosystem.

Competition

When two species or individuals within an ecosystem must share a limited resource.

Constants/Controlled Variables

Control Group

Decomposition

Ecology

The study of how living things interact with each other and the environment.

Ecosystem

All of the living and non-living things in a given area.

Food Chain

Food Web

GPP

Groundwater

Histogram

Hydrologic Cycle

Independent/Dependent Variable

Laws of Thermodynamics

Mutualism

A type of interaction between two species in which both species increase their chances of survival or reproduction significantly.

Nitrogen Fixation

NPP

Null Hypothesis

Nutrient

Parasitism

A type of interaction between two species in which one species lives in or on the host which they consume to live and reproduce.

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants take sunlight, water, and CO2 and convert it into glucose and O2. The glucose is then used in the plant for energy.

Population

All of the individuals of a given species in a given area.

Positive/Negative Feedback loops

Primary Productivity

Producer

Qualitative Data

Data in the form of qualities, ie color, patter, smell etc.

Quantitative Data

Data in the form of numbers, ie number of teeth, height, weight etc.

Reservoir

Resource Partitioning

The process by which species avoid competition with one another over a given resource through some adaptation through natural selection. Temporal, hunting or flowering at different times, Spatial, inhabiting different areas, Morphological, evolving some physical change.

Salinity

How much salt is in water

Scatterplot

Sink

Source

Symbiosis

When two species interact closely with each other on a long-term basis.

System

Trophic Level

The tiers of a food chain. Primary producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer etc.

Turbidity

Uptake