| A | B |
|---|
| biotic factors | living things |
| abiotic factors | nonliving |
| habitat | a species specific environment "home" |
| population | a group of individuals of the same species in an area |
| community | all the different populations combined |
| biosphere | the biologically inhabited portion of the planet |
| competition | is the struggle for resources among organisms |
| predators | kill and eat other organisms |
| prey | killed for food |
| carrying capacity | The number of organisms of any single species that an ecosystem can support |
| competition | results when two species attempt to fill the same role in an ecosystem |
| food chain | illustrates the relationship between prey and predator (what eats what) |
| autotroph | self feeder, obtains energy from sunlight |
| producer | Organism that makes its own food from energy and carbon atoms in its environment |
| heterotrophs | organism that must get energy from food sources |
| herbivores | organism that eats only plants and algae |
| carnivores | flesh eating organism (eat other animals) |
| consumers | organism that must obtain energy to build its molecules by consuming other organisms |
| decomposer | organism that causes decay |
| scavenger | organisms that eat dead animals |
| parasites | organism that attack other live organisms (called host organisms) |
| food web | diagram that show the more complexfeeding relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers |
| photosynthesis | process by which organisms use light energy to produce organic compounds |
| decomposer | organism that causes delay |
| ecology | the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment |
| energy pyramid | diagram that depicts each trophic level in an ecosystem and how much energy is stored in each trophic level |
| control | does not recieve experimental treatment |
| dependent variable | variable that is measured in an experiment |
| hypothesis | a proposed explaination for an observation that can be tested by additional observations or experimentation |
| independent variable | factor that is varied in an experiment |
| metabolism | sum of all chemical process occurring in an organism |
| homeostasis | the maintenance of stabel internal conditions in spite of changes in the external environment |
| excretion | the process of eliminating waste |
| respiration | simultaneous uptake of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide, by the lungs, gills, or through the skin |
| ATP | (adenosine triphosphate) organic molecule composed of a base, a sugar, and three phosphate groups that acts as the main energy currency of cells |
| organelle | structure in eukaryotic cells that has a specialized function |
| chloroplast | organelle that uses light energy to make carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water |
| mitochondria | organelle that produces much of the ATP made by a eukaryotic cell |
| nucleus | organelle that houses the DNA of eukaryotic cells |
| DNA | (deoxyribonucleic acid) double-stranded, helical nucleic acid that stores hereditary information |
| RNA | (ribonucleic acid) a type of nucleic acid involved in protein synthesis |
| tissue | group of cells witha common structure and function |
| organ | collection of tissues that work together to perform a particular function |
| cell membrane | lipid bilayer with embedded proteins that encloses the cytoplasm; essential to the cell's cytoplasm; also called the plasma membrane |
| enzyme | substance that speeds up a chemical reaction |
| amino acid | organic molecule that is the building block of proteins |
