Ecology Vocab

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 2

Biotic Factor

Answer 2

all of the living organisms within an ecosystem.

Question 3

Abiotic Factor

Answer 3

all of the non-living things in an ecosystem.

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 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. 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 are autotrophs.

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

Question 13

Primary consumer

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Secondary consumer

Answer 14

eat primary consumers. They are carnivores (meat-eaters)

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

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

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

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

Phosphorus cycle

Answer 25

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

Question 28

Secondary succession

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Pioneer species

Answer 29

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 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 system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.