Ecosystem Science Vocabulary
1. Ecosystem – all the living and nonliving things in an environment,
including their interactions with each other
2. prey – a living thing that is hunted for food
3. abiotic factor – a nonliving part of n eco system
4. scavenger – a meat eating animal that feeds on the remains of dead
animals
5. biotic factor – a living part of an ecosystem
6. omnivore – an animal that eats both plants and animals
7. population – all the members of one species in an area
8. symbiosis – a relationship between two organizing that lasts over time
9. ecology – the study of how living and nonliving things interact
10. mutualism – a relationship between two organism that benefits both
11. community – all the living things in an ecosystem
12. parasitism – a relationship in which one organism lives in or on another
organism and benefits from that relationship while the other organism
may be harmed by6 it
13. habitat – a place where a plant or animal naturally lives or grows
14. commensalism – a relationship between two organisms that benefits one
without harming the other
15. niche – the role of an organism in a community
16. limiting factor – anything that controls the growth or survival of a
population
17. food chain – the path of the energy in food from on e organism to
another
18. carrying capacity – the maximum population size that an area can
support
19. food web – the overlapping food chains in an ecosystem
20. endangered species – a species that is in danger of becoming extinct
21. herbivore – an animal that eats plants, algae, and other producers
22. extinct – a species that has died out completely
23. carnivore – an animal that eats other animals
24. threatened species – a species that is in danger of becoming endangered
25. predator – an animal the hunts other animals for food