| A | B |
|---|
| Ecology | study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their physical enviorment |
| habitat | the place where species live |
| community | where different species live together in a habitat |
| ecosystem | a community and all the physical aspects of its habitat |
| species diversity | the number of species living within an ecosystem |
| succession | regular progression of species replacement |
| primary succession | when succession occurs on land where nothing has grown before |
| secondary succession | succession that occurs where there has been previous growth |
| primary productivity | the amount of organic material that the photosynthetic organisms of an ecosystem produce |
| producers | organisms that first capture energy |
| consumers | obtain energy by eating plants |
| trophic level | placement of food chain, placed by energy source |
| herbivores | animals that only eat plants |
| carnivores | animals that only eat meat |
| omnivores | eat both meat and plants |
| detritivores | obtain energy from organic waste and dead bodies |
| decomposers | species that cause decay |
| food chain | a path of energy through the trophic levels of an ecosystem |
| food web | complicated, interconnected path of energy |
| biomass | dry weight of tissue and other organic matter |
| ground water | water retained beneath the surface of the earth |
| nitrogen fixation | the process of combining nitrogen gas with hydrogen to form ammonia |
| assimilation | absorption and incorporation of nitrogen into plant and animal compound |
| ammonification | production of ammonia by bacteria during the decay of nitrogen-containing organic matter |
| nitrification | the production of nitrate from ammonia |
| denitrification | conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas |
