Module 3 Flashcards
Ecology
The study of the interactions between living and nonliving things
Population
A group of interbreeding organisms coexisting together
Community
A group of populations living in interacting in the same area
Ecosystem
An association of living organisms and their physical environment
Biome
A group of ecosystems classified by climate and plant life
Biosphere
The sum of all Earth’s ecosystems in land water or air
Species
A unit of one or more populations of individuals that can reproduce under normal conditions, produce fertile offspring, and are reproductvely isolated from other such units
Biotic factors
Any living part of an environment
Abiotic factors
The nonliving physical and chemical conditions affecting organisms
Producers
Organisms that produce their own food
Consumers
Organisms that eat living producers and or other consumers for food
Decomposers
Organisms that break down the dead remains of other organisms
Primary consumer
An organism that eats producers (herbivores that eat plants)
Secondary consumer
An organism that eats primary consumers (carnivores eating herbivores)
Tertiary consumer
An organism that eats secondary consumers (carnivores eating carnivores)
Quaternary consumer
An organism that eats territory consumers (carnivore eating a carnivore that eats carnivores)
Food chain
A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
Food web
Links all the food chains in an ecosystem together
Biomass
A measure of the total amounts of living tissue of organisms within a trophic level in an ecosystem
Primary productivity
Rate at which producers in an ecosystem build biomass
Ecological pyramids
Pyramid shaped diagrams that show The amount of energy or matter at each trophic level in an ecosystem
Transpiration
Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant
Greenhouse effect
The process by which certain gases (principally water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane) trap heat that would otherwise escape the Earth and radiate into space
