Ecology Vocab WB

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Question 2

Biotic Factor

Answer 2

A thing in an environment that is living. Like a zebra.

Question 3

Abiotic Factor

Answer 3

Something in an environment that is not living. Like the temperature or rainfall.

Question 4

Organism

Answer 4

An animal, a plant. Something that is living.

Question 5

Species

Answer 5

A group of living organisms that are similar to each other and can interbreed.

Question 6

Population

Answer 6

A group of the same animal or plant that live in a specific area. EX: Herd of deer

Question 7

Community

Answer 7

Groups of different organisms interacting in a common location.

Question 8

Habitat

Answer 8

A place where an organism lives.

Question 9

Natural Selection

Answer 9

A process in which the most fit or best adapted survive to pass down their genes.

Question 10

Evolution

Answer 10

The change in a species over grand amounts of time.

Question 11

Producers/Autotrophs

Answer 11

Organisms that produce their own food, and are food for other organisms.

Question 12

Consumers/Heterotrophs

Answer 12

Consumers consume producers. They cannot make their own food, so they have to consume producers.

Question 13

Primary Consumer

Answer 13

A consumer in an energy pyramid, that consumes the producer. It is one step above the producer.

Question 14

Secondary Consumer

Answer 14

It is the step above the primary consumer. The secondary consumer usually consumes the primary consumer. There are fewer secondary consumers than primary consumers.

Question 15

Tertiary Consumer

Answer 15

This is the highest step in the energy pyramid and is above the secondary consumer. These consumers eat the secondary consumer, and are often at the peak of the food chain. These consumers are the fewest in number and require the most energy.

Question 16

Herbivores

Answer 16

These are consumers that eat plants. They are typically primary consumers and thus are prey for secondary or even tertiary consumers.

Question 17

Carnivores

Answer 17

They typically eat only the meat of other consumers and are thus either secondary consumers or tertiary consumers. They consumer other consumers.

Question 18

Omnivores

Answer 18

They are organisms that consume both plants and animals. They are typically a secondary consumer.

Question 19

Decomposers

Answer 19

They are organisms, most commonly fungi, that consume the remnants of corpses, or leaf litter.

Question 20

Food Chain

Answer 20

A feeding hierarchy.

Question 21

Food web

Answer 21

A feeding hierarchy that shows the interactions between the consumed and those that consume.

Question 22

Energy Pyramid

Answer 22

Shows the flow of energy through a biome/ecosystem/area. Usually with plants on the bottom and an apex predator on top.

Question 23

Carbon Cycle

Answer 23

The cycling of carbon through multiple systems. Systems such as photosynthesis and respiration.

Question 24

Nitrogen Cycle

Answer 24

A continuous series of natural processes by which nitrogen passes from air to soil to organisms and back to air or soil involving principally nitrogen fixation, nitrification, decay, and denitrification.

Question 25

Ecological Succession

Answer 25

The process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time.

Question 26

Primary Succession

Answer 26

An ecological succession that occurs following an opening of uninhabited, barren habitat or that occurs on an environment that is devoid of vegetation and usually lacking topsoil.

Question 27

Secondary Succession

Answer 27

Is a process started by an event (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane) that reduces an already established ecosystem (e.g. a forest or a wheat field) to a smaller population of species.

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

An ecological community in which populations of plants or animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and their environment.