Inherited Trait
A feature you are born with (eye color)
Environmental Influence
These can affect your inherited traits
(don’t get proper nutrition so you don’t
get as tall)
Adaptations
What you do to make yourself able to
live in your environment (camouflage)
Response
Reaction to stimuli
Reflex
Involuntary response to environmental
stimuli (Your eye blinks when a object
flies past it)
Instinct
A genetically controlled behavior (Birds
migrate when weather changes)
Learned Behavior
A behavior that you must learn (a lion
learns to hunt)
Biological Species
A group of organisms having a genetic
makeup that is similar enough they
can produce offspring
Population
All members of a species living in the
same area at the same time
Geographic Isolation
When a population gets separated by
changes in the environment
(Trees get cut down so squirrels get
separated and the two groups may
adapt to their environments in different
ways)
Ecosystems
Habitat
The place where organisms live
Community
A defined area where plants and
animals live together
Terrestrial
Land based ecosystems
-Deciduous forest (changes with the
seasons; plants and trees use
photosynthesis; more rain than
grasslands; diverse animals like black
bears, deer, red foxes, rabbits,
cardinals)
-Rainforest (Only take up 6% of the
surface but give off 40% of oxygen;
animals include panther, monkey,
snakes, spiders)
-Temperatures in forest depend on
where it is located
-Grassland (big open space with very
few bushes and trees; soil is very fertile;
more rain than deserts but less than
forests; animals include bison, prairie
dogs, grasshoppers)
-Desert (extreme heat and very dry;
cactus and animals that can store
water or are nocturnal)
-Tundra (located at top of the world
near the North Pole; frigid and cold;
permafrost on the ground; animals
hibernate or have thick fur and plants
are dormant)
-Taiga (Located south of the tundra;
lots of evergreen trees, lichens and
mosses; animals hibernate or fly south
during winter; animals include deer,
rabbits, foxes, elk)
Aquatic
-Water based ecosystems
-May be fresh water (lakes and ponds)
or saltwater (oceans, estuaries and
saltwater marshes)
-Ponds (Usually shallower than lakes
and the temperature of the
water usually stays the same from top
to bottom; plants and algae usually
grow along the edges where the water
is shallow; different types of fish,
amphibians, ducks, turtles, or beavers)
-Oceans (large bodies of saltwater
divided by continents; many types of
ecosystems depending on the
conditions (sunlight,
temperature, depth, salinity) of that
part of the ocean; organisms live
where the ocean is shallow (from the
shoreline to the continental shelf)
because sunlight can reach deep and
the water is warm which means lots of
food; drifters like jellyfish or seaweed,
swimmers like fish, crawlers like crabs,
and those anchored to the ocean
floor like corals)
-Salt marsh (where the land meets the
sea; exposed to water all the time;
microscopic organisms like bacteria
live there; fish and crabs and birds
come through at different times)
-Estuary (A partially enclosed body of
water where seawater and fresh water
meet and mix; bays, mud flats,
swamps; life depends on high and low
tide)
Biome
Similar ecosystems throughout the
world grouped together by
temperature
Niche
An organism’s address in the
community; their role
Producer
Plants need energy from the sun to
grow and reproduce; make their
energy using photosynthesis
Consumer
Animals get energy from the sun by
eating plants or other animals (primary
consumer- eats producers; secondary
eats primary)
Decomposer
Organisms in the soil that break down
the matter into simple nutrients;
recyclers (fungi)
Carnivore
Eat meat
Herbivore
Eat plants
Omnivore
Eat plants and animals
Symbiosis
Relationship where two species live
closely together
-Mutualism (both benefit like bees and
flowers)
-Parasitism (parasite lives on a host and
one benefits)
Food Chain
How food passes from one organism to
another
Food Web
More than one food web connected
together
Biotic
Living factors
Abiotic
Nonliving factors (soil, sunlight)