| A | B |
|---|
| Ecology | Study of the interactions of living things with one another and with their environment. |
| Ernst Haeckel | German scientist that named biology in 1866 |
| Habitat | The place where a particular population of a species lives |
| Community | The many different species that live together in a community. |
| Ecosystem | A community and all of the physical aspects of its habitat. |
| Diversity | The number of species living within an ecosystem. |
| Succession | The regular progression of species replacement. |
| Primary Succession | The first time an area is ever inhabited |
| Secondary Succession | The rehabitance of an area. |
| Primary Productivity | The amount of organic material that the photosynthetic organisms of an ecosystem produce. |
| Producers | The organisms that first capture the energy. |
| Consumers | All organisms that are not producers |
| Trophic Level | A designation given to an organism based on its source of energy. |
| Herbivores | Plant eating organisms |
| Carnivors | Animals that eat animals |
| Omnivores | Animals that eat plants and animals, but cannot break down cellulose. |
| Detritivores | Decomposers |
| Food Chain | The path energy takes through the trophic levels. |
| Food Web | A more complicated food chain. |
| 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. |
| Assimilation | The spread of ammonia through the soil where it is picked up by plants. |
| Ammonification | A second type of bacteria converts nitrogen from excretion back into ammonia. |
| Nitrification | Ammonia being converted to nitrate, or NO3 |
| Denitrification | Converting the remaining nitrate back into gas. |
