ecology Flashcards
Ecosystem
a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment
Biotic Factor
is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes.
Abiotic Factor
Abiotic variables found in terrestrial ecosystems can include things like rain, wind
Organism
any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant or bacterium.
Species
as the largest group of organisms where two hybrids are capable of reproducing fertile offspring, typically using sexual reproduction.
Population
a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding.
Community
a group of organisms living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
Habitat
the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.
Natural Selection
the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.
Evolution
the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.
Producers / Autotrophs
An organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances using light or chemical energy. Green plants, algae, and certain bacteria.
Consumers / Heterotrophs
An organism that cannot manufacture its own food and instead obtains its food and energy by taking in organic substances, usually plant or animal matter.
Primary Consumer
organisms are called herbivores.
Secondary Consumer
animals that eat primary producers; they are also called herbivores (plant-eaters)
Tertiary consumer
a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores
Herbivores
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage, for the main component of its die
Carnivores
an animal that feeds on flesh.
Omnivores
an animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin.
Decomposers
organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, carry out the natural process of decomposition
Food chain
hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food
Food web
a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.
Energy pyramid
is a graphical model of energy flow in a community. The different levels represent different groups of organisms that might compose a food chain
Carbon cycle
the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration
Nitrogen cycle
the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.
