Unit 2 List 1 PL Flashcards
Abiotic Factors
A non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment.
Autotrophs
An organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals.
Biotic Factors
The living organisms that shape up the environment.
Bioaccumulation
An increase in the concentration of a chemical over time in a biological organism compared to the chemical’s concentration in the environment.
Carbon Sink
Anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. (ex: plants, the ocean, soil)
Carnivore
An organism that eats meat, or the flesh of animals.
Consumer
An organism that cannot produce its own food and must eat other plants and/or animals to get energy.
Decomposer
An organism, often a bacterium, fungus or invertebrate that feeds on and breaks down dead plant of animal matter, making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem.
Commensalism
A relationship between individuals of two species in which one species benefits from the other without harming or benefiting the latter. (Benefits, Neutral)
Competition
A set of interactions between organisms and species to get a limited resource.
Ecosystem
A community of living organisms in a particular area.
Energy Pyramid
A model that shows the flow of energy from on trophic level to the next in an ecosystem.
Food Chain
A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.
Food Web
Consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.
Habitat
The natural home or environment of a plant, animal, or other organism.
Heterotrophs
An organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients.
Leaching
The loss of water soluble plant nutrients from the soil due to rain and irrigation.
Herbivore
An organism that feeds on plants.
Limiting Factor
Anything that constrains a population’s size and slows or stops it from growing.
Niche
The role an organism plays in a community.
Parasitism
A relationship between the two living species in which one organism is benefited at the expense of the other. (Benefit, Harmed)
Mutualism
Association between organisms of two different species in which each benefits. (Benefit, Benefit)
Ocean Acidifcation
A reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Omnivore
An organism that eats both plants and animals.
