ecology

Ecology

The study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.

Ecosystem

Living organisms interacting with each other and their nonliving environment.

Biosphere

Includes all the air, land, and water where life exists.

Organism

A living thing.

Habitat

The place an organism lives.

Biotic factor

A living part of the environment.

Abiotic factor

A non-living part of the environment.

Population

All the organism of one species living in a specific area.

Birth rate

The number of births in a population in a certain amount of time.

Limiting factors

Resources that organisms need to survive; when unavailable these factors limit a populations' ability to grow.

Community

All populations of different species living together in a specific area.

Niche

the role an organism occupies in an ecosystem, incl. its interactions with other species, the environmental conditions it requires, and the resources it utilizes to survive and reproduce

Producer

An organism that makes it's own food, usually using sunlight by a process called photosynthesis.

Autotroph

An organism that can make its own food

Consumer

An organism that can not make it's own food and must eat another organism.

Heterotroph

an organism that obtains energy by eating another organism.

Decomposer

An organism that decays dead matter and recycles its' nutrients back into the soil.

food chain

A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten; arrows are in the direction of energy flow

food web

Consists of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem.

energy pyramid

Shows the amount of energy that moves up trophic levels in a food chain. The amount of energy available decreases as you go up.

Predator

An animal that hunts other animals for food

Symbiosis

A close relationship between two organisms.

Prey

An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism

Parasitism

A relationship between two organisms of different species where one benefits and the other is harmed

Host

An organism on which a parasite lives.

Parasite

An organism that feeds on a living host

Mutualism

A close relationship between two organisms in which they both benefit/help each other

Competition

Organisms will compete with each other for resources such as food, water, living space, shelter, mates.

Scavenger

An organism that the feeds on the bodies of dead animals, such as vultures.

Biome

A large region that has a specific type of climate and certain types of plant and animal communities

Omnivore

An organism that eats meat and plants

Herbivore

An organism that eats plants only.

Carnivore

An organism that eats mostly meat

Detritivore

An organism that eats dead matter, helping cycle nutrients into the soil

ten percent rule

Only 10% of the total energy produced at each trophic level is available to the next level.

energy flows and matter cycles

Energy flows in one direction while matter is recycled over and over.

detritus

dead organic matter

trophic level

hierarchical level in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

human impact

The effect of humans on an ecosystem or environment

carbon cycle

circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again

fossil fuels

coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels that are ancient remains of plants and animals.

niche partitioning

the process by which competing species use the environment differently in a way that helps them to coexist

intraspecific competition

competition between members of the same species

interspecific competition

competition between members of different species

exponential growth

population growth that is unhindered because of the abundance of resources for an ever-increasing population.

logistic growth

growth pattern in which a population's growth slows and becomes stable following a period of exponential growth

carrying capacity

the largest population that an environment can support at any given time

biological magnification

process by which pollutants become more concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food chain

keystone species

a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its ecosystem

trophic cascade

an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators that alter the abundance, biomass, or productivity of other populations in the ecosystem

ocean acidification

decreasing pH of ocean waters due to absorption of excess atmospheric CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels

temporal (time) partitioning

two species reduce competition by utilizing a resource a different times

dietary partitioning

two species reduce competition by eating different food sources in the same location

spatial partitioning

two competing species using the same resource by occupying different areas

height partitioning

where different species access resources at different heights to reduce competition and coexist in a community

calcium carbonate

a molecule marine shelled organisms need to build their shells

relationship between pH and dissolved carbon dioxide in water

as carbon dioxide increases in water, the lower the pH