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| ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their physcial environment. |
| habitat | the place where a particular population of a species lives |
| community | the different species that live in a habitat together |
| ecosystem | a community and all the physical aspects of its habitat |
| species diversity | number of species living within an ecosystem |
| succession | the regular progression of species replacement |
| primary succession | succession that occurs on land where nothing has grown before |
| secondary succession | succession that occurs in areas where there has been previous growth |
| primary productivity | the amt. of organic material that the photosynthetic organisms of an ecosystem produce |
| producers | the organisms that first capture energy |
| consumers | the organisms which obtain energy by consuming other organisms |
| trophic level | the levels of organisms in an ecosystem which is determined by the organisms source of energy |
| herbivores | plant eaters |
| carnivores | meat eaters |
| omnivores | eat both plants and flesh |
| detritivores | obtain energy from organic wastes and dead bodies from all trophic levels |
| decomposers | organisms that cause decay (bacteria and fungi) |
| food chain | a path of energy through the trophic levels of an ecosystem |
| food web | complicated, interconnected food chain |
| biomass | the dry weight of tissue or 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 | the absorption and incorporation of nitrogen into plant and animal compounds |
| ammonififcation | the production of ammonia by bacteria during the decay of nitrogen-containing organic matter |
| denitirification | the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas |
| nitrification | the production of nitrate from ammonia |
