Unit 3 Ecology TJB Flashcards
Abiotic Factors
An abiotic factor is a non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment.
Autotrophs
An autotroph is an organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals.
Biotic Factors
Biotic factors are living things within an ecosystem.
Bioaccumulation
Bioaccumulation is defined as the build-up of something inside an organism.
Carbon sink
A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
Carnivorve
A carnivore is an organism that mostly eats meat, or the flesh of animals.
Commensalism
An association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm.
Competition
Competition is a set of interactions between organisms and species to get a limited resource.
Consumer
Any organism that does not make its own energy.
Decomposer
An organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.
Ecosystem
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Energy Pyramid
An energy pyramid is a model that shows the flow of energy from one trophic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem.
Food Chain
A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.
Food Web
A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.
Habitat
The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.
Herbivore
An animal that feeds on plants.
Heterotrophs
A heterotroph is an organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients.
Leaching
Leaching is a process in which water-soluble substances are washed out from the soil.
Limiting factor
A limiting factor is anything that constrains a population’s size and slows or stops it from growing.
Mutualism
A relationship in which both species are mutually benefited.
Niche
In ecology, the term niche describes the role an organism plays in a community.
Ocean acidification
Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
Omnivore
An omnivore is an organism that regularly consumes a variety of material, including plants, animals, algae, and fungi.
Parasitism
Parasitism is generally defined as a relationship between the two living species in which one organism is benefitted at the expense of the other.
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.
Pioneer Species
The species that first colonize new habitats created by disturbance.
Population
A population is defined as a group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area.
Predation
The preying of one animal on others.
Predator
Predators are organisms that hunt and kill other organisms for food.
Prey
Prey is any animal that serves as a food source for another animal.
Primary Succession
Primary succession, type of ecological succession in which plants and animals first colonize a barren, lifeless habitat.
Producer
A producer is an organism that creates its own food or energy.
Sustainability
Sustainability is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain (or ideally increase) its biodiversity whilst simultaneously providing humans with the resources they need over a long period of time.
Secondary Succession
Secondary succession takes place where a disturbance did not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment.
Species Overshoot
Overshoot refers to the growth of a population beyond the environment’s or ecosystem’s ability to support that species.
