Ecology

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 2

Biotic factor

Answer 2

living component that affects the population of another organism, or the environment.

Question 3

Abiotic Factor

Answer 3

determine which species of organisms will survive in a given environment

Question 4

Organism

Answer 4

an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form.

Question 5

Species

Answer 5

a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.

Question 6

Population

Answer 6

a particular section, group, or type of people or animals living in an area or country.

Question 7

Community

Answer 7

a group of actually or potentially interacting species living in the same place.

Question 8

Habitat

Answer 8

environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism.

Question 9

Natural selection

Answer 9

the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

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/autographs

Answer 11

an organism that produces complex organic compounds

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. All animals, protozoans, fungi, and most bacteria are heterotrophs. Compare autotroph.

Question 13

Primary Consumer

Answer 13

an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.

Question 14

Secondary Consumer

Answer 14

eat these plants exclusively and are all herbivores.

Question 15

Tertiary Consumer

Answer 15

a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers.

Question 16

Herbivores

Answer 16

an animal that feeds on plants.

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

an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.
a device or installation that is used to break down a chemical substance.

Question 20

Food Chain

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Energy Pyramind

Answer 21

graphical model of energy flow in a community.

Question 22

food web

Answer 22

a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

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, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels.

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

Ecological Succession

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Primary Succession

Answer 26

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, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier, is deposited.

Question 27

Secondary Succession

Answer 27

a process started by an event

Question 28

Pioneer species

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Climax Community

Answer 29

the final stage of succession, remaining relatively unchanged until destroyed by an event such as fire or human interference.

Question 30

Ecosystem

Answer 30

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.