Vocab 1 Flashcards
A biological community of interacting organisms and their environment
Ecosystem
Living things
Biotic Factor
Nonliving things
Abiotic Factor
A living thing
Organism
A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding
Species
the number of a certain species in an area
Population
Groups of animals living in the same place with similar things in common
Communtiy
Natural home or environment for an animal plant or other organism
Habitat
The process organisms go through to become better adapted to their environment
Natural Selection
The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of earth
Evolution
An organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such is carbon dioxide
Producers/Autotrophs
An organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances
Consumers/Heterotrophs
Animal that eats plants
Primary Consumer
Animal that eats the animal that eats the plants
Secondary Consumer
Animal on the top of the food chain
Tertiary Consumer
Animal that eats plants
Herbivores
Animal that eats other animals
Carnivores
Animals that eat both plants and other animals
Omnivores
Break down dead oragaisms
Decomposers
A hierarchical series of organisms each depend on the next source of food
Food Chain
A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
Food Web
The energy flow through a food chain or food web
Energy Pyramid
The series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration the decay of dead organisms and the burning of fossil fuels
Carbon Cycle
The series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms including nitrogen fixation and decomposition
Nitrogen Cycle
Describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere hydrosphere and biosphere
Phosphorus Cycle
The observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time
Ecological Succession
One of the two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil
Primary Succession
The series of community changes which take place on a previously colonized but disturbed or damaged habitat
Secondary Succession
The first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady state ecosystem
Pioneer Species
A stable mature community in a succession which has reached equilibrium after having evolved through stages and adapted to its environment
Climax Community
