| A | B |
|---|
| Ecosystem | all of the living and nonliving things that interact n a particular area |
| Habitat | the place where an organism lives and that provides the things that the organism needs (food, water, shelter) |
| Biotic Factors | the living parts of an ecosystem |
| Abiotic Factors | the nonliving parts of an ecosystem |
| Species | a group of organisms that are physically similar and can reproduce offspring |
| Population | all of the members of one species in a particular area |
| Community | all of the different populations that live together in an area make up a community |
| Ecology | the study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment |
| Population Density | the number of individuals in a particular area |
| Birth Rate | the birth rate of a population is the number of births in a population in a certain amount of time |
| Death Rate | the number of deaths in a population in a certain amount of time |
| Limiting Factor | an environmental factor that prevents a population from increasing (food, space, weather conditions) |
| Carrying Capacity | the largest population that an environment can support |
| Competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
| Natural Selection | the process by which organisms are made better suited to their environment |
| Adaptations | results of natural selection |
| Predation | an interaction where one organism kills and eats another organism |
| Prey | the organism that is killed |
| Producer | the source of all food in an ecosystem (plants) |
| Consumer | organisms that feed on other organisms |
| Herbivores | consumers that eat only plants |
| Carnivores | consumers that eat only animals |
| Omnivores | consumers that eat plants and animals |
| Scavengers | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| Decomposers | organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment |
| Food Chain | a series of events in which an organism eats another organism to obtain energy |
| Food Web | consists of many overlapping food chains |
| Symbiosis | a close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species |
| Mutualism | a relationship in which both species benefit |
| Commensalism | a relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither helped nor harmed |
| Parasitism | involves one organism living on or inside another organism and harming it (the organism that benefits is the parasite, and the organism that the parasite lives on is called the host) |
| Energy Pyramid | shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another |
| Water Cycle | the continuous process by which water moves from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back. |
| Evaporation | the process by which molecules of liquid water absorb energy and change to a gas state |
| Condensation | The process by which a gas changes to a liquid |
| Precipitation | the heavy drops that form as more water vapor condenses (forms include: rain, snow, sleet, or hail) |
| Abiotic Factors found in Ecosystems | Water Sunlight Oxygen Temperature Soil |
| World in a Jar | In our model ecosystem the biotic factors (living things) were guppies, snails, plants, and algae. The abiotic factors were water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature and the gravel at the bottom of the tank. The plants used sunlight to produce their own food using photosynthesis. They are considered producers in the ecosystem. A byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen, which the guppies and snails needed to survive. Algae formed and provided food for the snails and guppies. |
| The smallest level of organization | is an individual organism |
| The largest level of organization | is the ecosystem |
| Organism example | one prairie dog |
| Population example | all of the prairie dogs in an area |
| Community example | all of the different organisms that interact with the Prarie dogs (hawks, grasses, badgers, etc.) |
| Ecosystem example | the entire Prairie region including all of the abiotic and biotic factors |
| If birth rate is higher than the death rate | the population increases. |
| If the birth rate is lower than the death rate | , the population decreases |
| If the rates are the same | the population stays the same size |
| Populations can be limited by: | Food- the population cannot grow beyond the number that can be supported by food available Space- if animals are crowded, some will not be available to reproduce or survive Weather- severe weather conditions can kill many members of a population |
| Animals and plants have adaptations that help them | to survive in their environment |
| Predator adaptations | cheetah’s can run fast to catch their prey, jellyfish have poisonous tentacles to paralyze their prey, other animals have claws, sharp teeth, or stingers. |
| Prey adaptations | camouflage, protective coverings, warning colorings, mimicry, false colorings |
| Examples of the 3 Types of Symbiotic Relationships | Mutualism, Commensalism, Parasitism |
| Mutualism example | bacteria in your large intestine (the bacteria helps you digest food, you give the bacteria food and a place to live) |
| Commensalism example | red tailed hawk and the saguaro cactus (the hawk builds nests in the holes of the cactus and the cactus in unaffected) |
| Parasitism example | fleas and ticks on a dog (the fleas and ticks feed off of the blood of the dog and the dog may be negatively effected by acquiring a disease or skin condition) |
| Sunlight is the energy that fuels | ALL food webs and chains |
| Plants (Producers) use | the sunlight to do photosynthesis. |
| All other consumers | depend on these producers |
| The most energy is available | at the producer level |
| At each level in a food pyramid | there is less available energy than at the level below it. |
| Producers examples | Grass, Apple Trees, Wheat, Corn |
| First Level Consumers (animals that eat producers, all of them are herbivores) | Mice, rabbits, grasshoppers |
| Second Level Consumers | Shrews, garter snakes |
| Third Level Consumers | Fox, Bear, Coyote |
| Decomposers examples | Fungi, bacteria |
| Scavengers examples | Catfish, vultures |
