Ecology Vocab Flashcards
Ecosystem
Biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Biotic factor
Biotic means living, and biotic factors are the other, living parts of the ecosystem with which an organism must interact.
Abiotic factor
Abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.
Organism
An individual living thing that can react to stimuli, reproduce, grow, and maintain homeostasis.
Species
Set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment.
Population
Population ecology or autecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment.
Community
Group of actually or potentially interacting species living in the same place.
Habitat
Habit is the characteristic form in which a given species of plant grows.
Natural Selection
The process in nature by which, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characters.
Evolution
Field within both ecology and evolution that examines how interactions between and within species evolve. It explicitly considers the evolutionary effects of competitors, mutualists, predators, prey and pathogens..
Producers / Autotrophs
Autotroph, in ecology, an organism that serves as a primary producer in a food chain. Autotrophs obtain energy and nutrients by harnessing sunlight through photosynthesis.
Consumers / Heterotrophs
Organisms of an ecological food chain that receive energy by consuming other organisms.
Primary consumer
Primary consumers are herbivores, feeding on plants.
Secondary consumer
Secondary consumers, on the other hand, are carnivores, and prey on other animals.
Tertiary consumer
Carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers.
Herbivores
Animals that only eat plants.
Carnivores
Animals that only eat meat.
Omnivores
Animals which eat both plants and meats.
Decomposers
Organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, they carry out the natural process of decomposition.
Food chain
Sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism.
Food web
System of interlocking and interdependent food chains.
Energy pyramid
Graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
Carbon cylcle
The combined processes, including photosynthesis, decomposition, and respiration, by which carbon as a component of various compounds cycles between its major reservoirs.
Nitrogen cycle
The series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are inter-converted in the environment and in living organisms.
Ecological succession
Process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.
Primary succession
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.
Secondary succession
Process started by an event that reduces an already established ecosystem to a smaller population of species.
Pioneer species
Species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems.
Climax community
Populations of plants or animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and their environment.
Ecosystem
The integrated study of living and non-living components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework.
