| A | B |
|---|
| Ecology | The study of the interactions of living organisms with each other and their physical enviroment. |
| Habitat | The place where a particular population of a species lives. |
| Community | The many different species that live together in a habitat. |
| Ecosystem | A community and all the physical aspects of its habitat- soil, water, and weather. |
| Species diversity | The number of species living within an ecosystem. |
| Succesion | This regular progression of species replacement. |
| Primary Succession | When succession occurs on land where nothing has grown before. |
| Secondary Succession | When succession occurs in areas where there has been previous growth. |
| Primary Productivity | The amount of organic material that the photosynthetic organisms of an ecosystem produce. |
| Producers | Organisms that make energy-storing molecules. |
| Consumers | All other organisms that are not producers. |
| Trophic level | Determined by the organism's source of energy. |
| Herbivores | Animals that eat plants. |
| Carnivors | Flesh-eating animals. |
| Omnivores | Animals that eat both plants and animals. |
| Detritivores | Obtain their energy from organic wastes and dead bodies. |
| Decomposers | Bacteria and fungi that decay. |
| Food chain | A path of energy through the trophic levels of an ecosystem. |
| Food web | The energy flow that is not in a linear pattern. |
| Biomass | The 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. |
