| A | B |
|---|
| ecology | study of interactions of living organisms with one another with thier physical enviroment |
| habitat | place where a particular population of species lives |
| communtity | the many different species that live together in a habitat |
| ecosystem | a community and all the physical aspects of its habitat |
| species diversity, diversity | number of species in an ecosystem |
| succesion | the regular progression of species replacement |
| primary succesion | when succesion occurs on land where nothing has grown before |
| secondary succesion | when succesion 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 first capture energy |
| consumers | organisms that obtain energy by consuming other organims |
| trophic level | a step in a food chain |
| herbivores | organisms that eat plants |
| carnivores | animals that eat other animals |
| omnivores | animals that eat animals and plants |
| detritivores | organism that obtains its energy by feeding on dead organisms or wastes |
| decomposers | organisms that cause decay;bacteria & fungi |
| food chain | a path of energy through trophic levels of an ecosystem |
| food web | a network of feeding relationships in an ecosystem |
| 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 |
