Unit 7 vocab Flashcards
Abiotic
Physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms.
Biotic
Relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.
Biodiversity
A variety of organisms in an ecosystem or biome.
Climax community
A dominant community of plants and animals that come to live in an area.
Ecological succession
The changing sequence of communities that live in an ecosystem during a given time period.
Limiting factor
A condition or resource that keeps a population at a certain size.
Microhabitat
A small or specialized habitat within a larger habitat.
Pioneer species
First organisms to live in an area.
Primary succession
A process that develops a biotic community in a previously uninhabited and barren habitat with little or no soil.
Secondary succession
a process started by an event that reduces an already established ecosystem to a smaller population of species .
Sustainability
ability to maintain ecological processes over long periods of time; ability of an ecosystem to maintain its structure and function over time.
Biome
a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra.