| A | B |
|---|
| ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and their physical environment |
| habitat | the place where a population lives |
| community | all of the differnent species that live together in a habitat |
| ecosystem | a community and all of the physical aspects of its habitat |
| abiotic factor | physical aspects such as water and soil |
| biotic factor | the living organisms |
| biodiversity | the number of different species living within an ecosystem |
| pioneer species | the first organisms to live in a new habitatare small fast growing plants |
| succession | the regular progression of species replacement |
| primary succession | succession where no plants have grown before |
| secondary succession | succession where there has been previous growth |
| primary productivity | the rate at which organic material is produced by photosynthetic organisms in an ecosystem |
| producer | organisms that first capture energy form the sun - plants |
| consumer | organisms that consume plants or other consumers |
| trophic level | how energy moves through an ecosystem from level to level |
| food chain | path of energy through the trophic levels |
| food web | interconnected food chains |
| herbivore | animals that eat plants |
| carnivore | animals that eat other herbivores |
| omnivore | animals that eat both plants and animals |
| detritivore | organisms that obtain their energy from organic wastes and dead bodies |
| decomposer | cause decay |
| energy pyramid | diagram in which each trophic level is represented by a block |
| biomass | dry weight of tissues |
| biogeochemical cycle | the movement of chemicals from the earth to living organisms and back again |
| ground water | water that seeps into the soil |
| transpiration | water lost from plants through the stomata |
| nitrogen cycle | the movement of N2 into ammonia and nitrates for use by plants |
| water cycle | the movement of water from the atmosphere to the earth |
| carbon cycle | the movement of carbon from the atmosphere and back to earth through combustion and respiraion |
