ecology

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment

Question 2

Biotic Factor

Answer 2

is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes.

Question 3

Abiotic Factor

Answer 3

Abiotic variables found in terrestrial ecosystems can include things like rain, wind

Question 4

Organism

Answer 4

any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant or bacterium.

Question 5

Species

Answer 5

as the largest group of organisms where two hybrids are capable of reproducing fertile offspring, typically using sexual reproduction.

Question 6

Population

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Community

Answer 7

a group of organisms living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

Question 8

Habitat

Answer 8

the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Question 9

Natural Selection

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Evolution

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Producers / Autotrophs

Answer 11

An organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances using light or chemical energy. Green plants, algae, and certain bacteria.

Question 12

Consumers / Heterotrophs

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Primary Consumer

Answer 13

organisms are called herbivores.

Question 14

Secondary Consumer

Answer 14

animals that eat primary producers; they are also called herbivores (plant-eaters)

Question 15

Tertiary consumer

Answer 15

a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores

Question 16

Herbivores

Answer 16

A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage, for the main component of its die

Question 17

Carnivores

Answer 17

an animal that feeds on flesh.

Question 18

Omnivores

Answer 18

an animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin.

Question 19

Decomposers

Answer 19

organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, carry out the natural process of decomposition

Question 20

Food chain

Answer 20

hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food

Question 21

Food web

Answer 21

a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

Question 22

Energy pyramid

Answer 22

is a graphical model of energy flow in a community. The different levels represent different groups of organisms that might compose a food chain

Question 23

Carbon cycle

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Nitrogen cycle

Answer 24

the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.

Question 25

Phosphorus cycle

Answer 25

is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

Question 26

Ecological succession

Answer 26

the observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Question 27

Primary succession

Answer 27

one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil

Question 28

Secondary succession

Answer 28

the series of community changes which take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat.

Question 29

Pioneer species

Answer 29

are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more bio-diverse steady-state ecosystem.

Question 30

Climax community

Answer 30

a stable mature community in a successive series which has reached equilibrium after having evolved through stages and adapted to its environment

Question 31

Ecosystem

Answer 31

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.