Beginning Honors Circle of Life unit

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

Community

All the different populations that live together in an area

Ecosystem

A community of organisms and their abiotic environment

Autotroph

An organism that makes its own food

Heterotroph

organism that obtains energy from the foods it consumes; also called a consumer

Producer

An organism that can make its own food.

primary consumer

An organism that eats producers

secondary consumer

An organism that eats primary consumers

tertiary consumer

An organism that eats secondary consumers

Herbivore

organism that obtains energy by eating only plants. aka primary consumer

Omnivore

organism that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals

Carnivore

organism that obtains energy by eating animals

Decomposer

organism that breaks down and obtains energy from dead organic matter

trophic level

each of several hierarchical levels 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.

biotic factors

living parts of an ecosystem

abiotic factors

nonliving parts of an ecosystem

limiting factor

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

carrying capacity

Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support

Matter

Anything that has mass and takes up space

Biodiversity

The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.

logistic growth

Population growth that is controlled by limited resources. Usually Carrying Capacity has been reached

Exponential growth

growth whose rate becomes ever more rapid in proportion to the growing total number or size.

density-dependent limiting factor

limiting factor that depends on population density

Density-independent limiting factor

limiting factor that affects all populations in similar ways, regardless of population size or density