Ecology Vocab

Question 1

System that includes all living organisms.

Answer 1

Ecosystem

Question 2

Something living that affects the ecosystem like an animal or plants.

Answer 2

Biotic Factor

Question 3

Something not living that affects the ecosystem like rainfall or temperature.

Answer 3

Abiotic Factor

Question 4

Any contiguous living system. And is capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development.

Answer 4

Organism

Question 5

Group of closely related organisms.

Answer 5

Species

Question 6

Group of individual species that live in the same region at the same time.

Answer 6

Population

Question 7

Interacting group of various species in a common location.

Answer 7

Community

Question 8

Place where an organism or a population normally lives or occurs.

Answer 8

Habitat

Question 9

A process in nature by which organisms that are better adapted to their enviornment tend to survive longer.

Answer 9

Natural Selection

Question 10

Descent with modification.

Answer 10

Evolution

Question 11

Organism capable of making nutritive organic molecules from inorganic sources via photosynthesis.

Answer 11

producers/ autotrophs

Question 12

Organism that cannot manufacture its own food, instead obtains its food and energy by hunting/ gathering.

Answer 12

Consumers/ heterotrophs

Question 13

Organisms that eat autotrophs, or the things that eat plants.

Answer 13

Primary Consumer

Question 14

Organisms that eat herbivores, or the things that eat the animals who eat grass.

Answer 14

Secondary Consumer

Question 15

Carnivore, the organism at the topmost level in the food chain.

Answer 15

Tertiary Consumer

Question 16

Organisms that only eat plants, not meat.

Answer 16

Herbivores

Question 17

Organisms that only eat meat, not plants.

Answer 17

Carnivores

Question 18

Organisms that eat both vegetation, and meat.

Answer 18

Omnivores

Question 19

Organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms.

Answer 19

Decomposers

Question 20

Linear network or links in a food web starting from producer organisms, and ending at the apex predator species.

Answer 20

Food Chain

Question 21

Graphic model showing the interconnecting food chains in an ecological community.

Answer 21

Food Web

Question 22

Graphical representation of the trophic levels by which the incoming solar energy is transferred into an ecosystem.

Answer 22

Energy Pyramid