1. Abiotic Factor
Any nonliving factor in an organism’s environment,
such as soil, water temperature, and light availability.
2. Aquatic
Connected with, consisting of, or dependent on
water. Water can be fresh, salt, or brackish.
(Brackish is a mixture of fresh and salt water.)
3. Autotroph
Organism that captures energy from sunlight or
inorganic substances to produce its own food;
provides the foundation of the food supply for other
organisms; also called a producer.
4. Biodiversity
Number of different species living in a specific area.
5. Biogeochemical Cycle
Exchange of matter through the biosphere involving
living organisms, chemical processes, and geological
processes.
6. Biomass
Total mass of living matter at each trophic level.
7. Biome
Large group of ecosystems that share the same
climate and have similar types of communities.
8. Biotic Factor
9. Commensalism
8)
Any living factor in an organism’s environment.
A symbiotic relationship in which one organism
benefits and the other organism is neither helped nor
harmed.
10. Consumer
An organism that gets its energy requirements by
consuming other organisms.
11. Decomposer
Decomposers are fungi and bacteria. They break
down dead organisms by releasing digestive
enzymes. They are the main method and tool used
to break down organic
12. Denitrification
Process in which fixed nitrogen compounds are
converted back into nitrogen gas and returned to the
atmosphere.
13. Detritivore
Heterotroph that decomposes organic material and
returns the nutrients to soil, air, and water, making
the nutrients available to other organisms.
14. Ecology
Scientific study of all the interrelationships between
organisms and their environment.
15. Ecosystem
Biological community and all the nonliving factors
that affect it.
16. Environment
Surroundings or conditions where an organism lives.
17. Food Chain
Simplified model that shows a single path for energy
flow through an ecosystem.
18. Ecological Pyramids
Models or diagrams ecologists use to show how
energy flows through ecosystems.
19. Food web
Model that shows many interconnected food chains
and pathways in which energy and matter flow
through an ecosystem.
20. Habitat
Physical area in which an organism lives.
21. Heterotroph
Organism that cannot make its own food and gets its
nutrients and energy requirements by feeding on
other organisms; also called a consumer.
22. Mutualism
Symbiotic relationship in which both organisms
benefit.
23. Niche
The roll or position an organism has in its
environment.
24. Nonrenewable Resource
Any natural resource available in limited amounts or
replaced extremely slowly by natural processes.
25. Parasitism
Symbiotic relationship in which on organism benefits
at the expense of another organism.
26. Population
Group of organisms of the same species that occupy
the same geographic place at the same time.
27. Predation
Act of one organism feeding on another organism.
28. Primary Consumers
Eat the producers, and are herbivores. They are in
the second level of the energy pyramid. (Cows,
rabbits, insects like grasshoppers, etc.)
29. Producers
A.k.a. primary producers - are plants and a few other
organisms that produce their own food in an
ecosystem.
30. Secondary Consumers
Eat the primary consumers and are carnivores. They
are in the third level of the energy pyramid.
31. Symbiosis
Closes mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal
association between two or more species that live
together.
32. Tertiary Consumers
Third level consumers that eat the secondary
consumers. They are in the fourth level of an energy
pyramid.
33. Transpiration
Process in which water evaporates from the inside of
leaves to the outside through the stomata.
34. Trophic Level
Each step in a food chain or food web.