Unit 1: Living Things Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from Unit 1: Living Things, including ecosystem levels, classification hierarchies, biological domains, kingdoms, cellular organization, and characteristics of life.

Biome

A region of the world characterized by its resident life, environment, and climate.

Ecosystem

The interaction between organisms living together in a particular environment, referring to a smaller area within a biome where nutrients cycle.

Biotic factor

A factor in an ecosystem that is living or was once living.

Abiotic factor

A factor in an ecosystem that was never living.

Observation

Gathering information about surroundings using the five senses, forming a verifiable fact everyone can agree on.

Inference

Using observations to make an assumption, judgment, or conclusion about a situation.

Autotroph

An organism that makes its own food using energy from the sun.

Heterotroph

An organism that cannot make its own food and eats other heterotrophs or autotrophs, using the sun's energy indirectly.

Prokaryotes

Unicellular organisms whose cells lack a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles.

Eukaryotes

Organisms whose cells contain a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles.

Nucleus

The dense area in a eukaryotic cell that contains nucleic acids, which are the chemical instructions directing the cell's activities.

Classify

To group similar objects together to organize living things so that they are easier to study.

Domain Bacteria

A domain of prokaryotic organisms whose cells lack a nucleus; some are harmful, but most are helpful.

Domain Archaea

A domain of unicellular prokaryotes whose chemical makeup differs from bacteria, some of which can live in extreme conditions.

Domain Eukarya

A domain consisting of organisms made of eukaryotic cells containing a nucleus, including plants, animals, fungi, and protists.

Protists

The 'odds and ends' kingdom in domain Eukarya containing organisms that do not belong anywhere else, are mostly unicellular, and have very little in common.

Fungi

A kingdom in domain Eukarya consisting of heterotrophs that are mostly multicellular and feed by absorbing nutrients from dead or decaying organisms.

Plants

A kingdom in domain Eukarya consisting of multicellular autotrophs.

Animals

A kingdom in domain Eukarya consisting of multicellular heterotrophs.

Binomial nomenclature

A living thing's two-level scientific name composed of its Genus and species.

Genus

A level of classification containing closely related organisms that are similar but cannot mate to produce fertile offspring; written capitalized and italicized.

Species

The most specific level of classification containing organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring; written lowercase and italicized.

Cell

The basic unit of structure and function of living things.

Carbohydrates

Chemicals of life that provide energy to organisms.

Proteins

Chemicals of life that build tissue in organisms.

Lipids

Chemicals of life that store energy and burn.

Nucleic acids

Chemicals of life that form DNA and RNA.

Stimulus

A change in an organism's surroundings that causes the organism to react.

Response

An action or change in behavior that occurs as a result of a stimulus.

Growth

The process of an organism becoming larger.

Development

The process of change that occurs during an organism's life to produce a more complex organism.

Reproduction

The process of producing offspring that resemble the parent.

Unicellular

An organism made of a single cell.

Multicellular

An organism consisting of many cells.