Ecology

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 2

Biotic factor

Answer 2

Any living component that affects another organism, or shapes the ecosystem.

Question 3

Abiotic factor

Answer 3

Non-living component in the 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

The number of living things that live together in the same place.

Question 7

Community

Answer 7

A group of people 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.

Question 10

Evolution

Answer 10

The process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.

Question 11

Producers Autotrophs

Answer 11

An organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances using light or chemical energy.

Question 12

Consumers / Heterotrophs

Answer 12

A consumer in the food chain.

Question 13

Primary consumer

Answer 13

An organism that feeds on primary producers.

Question 14

Secondary consumer

Answer 14

Organisms, primarily animals, which eat primary consumers.

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

An animal that feeds on plants.

Question 17

Carvinore

Answer 17

An animal that feeds on flesh.

Question 18

Omnivore

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.

Question 20

Food Chain

Answer 20

A 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

A graphical model of energy flow in a community.

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

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

Question 26

Primary Succession

Answer 26

Is 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

Is a process started by an event that reduces an already established ecosystem.

Question 28

Pioneer Species

Answer 28

Are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems

Question 29

Climax Community

Answer 29

Is a historic term for a biological community of plants, animals, and fungi which, through the process of ecological succession in the development of vegetation in an area over time, have reached a steady state.

Question 30

Ecosystem

Answer 30

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.