| A | B |
|---|
| biome | large region with similar climate and life forms |
| climate | long term weather patterns |
| aquatic life zone | marine and freshwater portion of ecosphere |
| abiotic | nonliving |
| biotic | living |
| law of tolerance | minimum and maximum limits for physical condition or chemical substances |
| tolerance limit | point beyond which no member can survive |
| limiting factor | regulates population growth |
| limiting factor principle | too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent growth |
| dissolved oxygen | amount of oxygen gas dissolved in a given amount of water |
| salinity | amount of salt dissolved in water |
| producers/autotroph | make their own food |
| photosynthesis | energy is used to make glucose |
| chemosynthesis | process of converting simple compunds from environment into more complex compounds without sunlight |
| consumer/heterotroph | organism that gets enrgy by eating other organisms |
| herbivores | plant eaters/primary consumers |
| carnivore | meat eaters/secondary consumers |
| tertiary consumer | feed on other carnivores higher level consumers |
| omnivore | eat plants and animals |
| scavenger | feed on dead organisms |
| detritivore | live off detritus |
| detritus | parts of dead organisms or wastes from living things |
| detritus feeder | crabs, carpenter ants, termites, earthworms, wood beetles |
| decomposer | breakdown and recycle materials, mainly bacteria |
| biodegradable | capable of being broken down by decomposers |
| aerobic respiration | use of oxygen break down glucose for energy back into carbon dioxide and water |
| anaerobic respiration/fermentation | do not use oxygen to break down glucose for energy |
| food chain | sequence of organisms, each of which is a source of food for the next |
| food web | interconnected food chains |
| trophic level | feeding level |
| biomass | dry weight of all organic matter |
| ecological efficiency | percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to another |
| net primary productivity | rate at which energy for use by cnsumers is stored in new biomass |
| gross primary productivity | rate that producers can capture and store energy |
