| A | B |
|---|
| ecologist | a biologist who studies the relation between organisms and their environment |
| vertebrate | an animal with a backbone or spinal column |
| invertebrate | an animal with no backbone or spinal column |
| classification | the placing of animals and plants in a series of increasingly specialized groups because of similarities in structure |
| taxonomy | the classification of organisms in an ordered system that indicates natural relationships |
| species | a group of organisms having many characteristics in common and ranking below a genus |
| insects | a group of arthropods having a head, thorax and abdomen, and 6 legs |
| arthropods | invertebrates with jointed legs |
| mollusks / molluscs | a group of invertebrates that includes snails, slugs, clams and mussels |
| annelids | a type of worm with a body made up of ring-like segments |
| cnidarians | a group of soft-bodied animals that include jellyfish, hydra and corals |
| crustaceans | an arthropod group with hard exterior skeletons (exoskeletons) |
| fern | a plant that usually has long feathery fronds |
| flowering plant | a plant that produces flowers and seeds |
| moss | a small plant that grows in damp soil, in rocky crevices and other surfaces |
| conifer | a type of tree that has cones |
| habitat | a place where organisms live |
| community | all the different organisms that live together in a habitat |
| population | all the organisms of the same species living together in a habitat |
| sampling | taking a section of a habitat and investigating it as an example of the whole area |
| quadrat | a square area in which organisms are sampled (counted) |
| producer | an organism that produces its own food |
| consumer | an organism that obtains food by eating other organisms |
| pyramid of numbers | diagram of showing the different numbers of organisms at each step in a food chain |
| food chain | simple chain of feeding relationships between 3-4 organisms |
| food web | complex network of feeding relationships between a large number of organisms |
| primary consumer | an organism that eats only plants (producers) |
| secondary consumer | an organism that eats an animal that is a primary consumer |
| tertiary consumer | an organism that eats a secondary consumer; tertiary consumers are usually at the top of the food chain |
| carnivore | an animal that eats other organism |
| herbivore | an animal that eats only plants |
| omnivore | an animal that eats plants and other organisms |
| top carnivore | organism that is not eaten by anything else |
