Ecology Vocab Flashcards
What is the definition of a biosphere?
The global sum of all ecosystems.
What is a biome?
A large geographical biotic unit, a major community of plants and animals with similar life forms and environmental conditions.
What does an ecosystem consist of?
A community of living organisms and their physical environment interacting as a system.
Define community in ecological terms.
A group of different species that live together in one area.
What is a population?
All the individuals of a species living in a specific area.
What is an organism?
Any individual living thing.
What is the definition of a species?
A group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
What is a habitat?
The natural environment in which a species or community of species lives.
What is a food chain?
A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.
What is a food web?
A complex network of feeding relationships among various organisms in an ecosystem
What is energy in the context of ecosystems?
The capacity to do work, which flows through ecosystems primarily from the sun.
What is photosynthesis?
The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods with the help of chlorophyll.
What is cellular respiration?
The process by which cells convert glucose and oxygen into energy, carbon dioxide, and water.
What does abiotic refer to?
Non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment.
What does biotic refer to?
Living components of an ecosystem.
What are resources in an ecological context?
Materials or substances required by organisms for growth, maintenance, and reproduction.
Define symbiosis.
A close and often long-term interaction between two different biological species.
What is parasitism?
A relationship where one organism benefits at the expense of another.
What is a host in parasitism?
The organism that is harmed or used by the parasite.
What is commensalism?
A relationship where one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
What is mutualism?
A symbiotic relationship where both species benefit.
What is a primary consumer?
An organism that eats producers, typically herbivores.
What is a secondary consumer?
An organism that eats primary consumers, often carnivores or omnivores.
What is a tertiary consumer?
An organism that eats secondary consumers.
