| A | B |
|---|
| carnivore | meat eaters |
| scavenger | animal which feeds on animals which have been already killed |
| herbivore | all plant eating organism |
| omnivore | eats both plants and animals |
| ecology | study of the interactions of living things with each other and their environment |
| population | all the organisms of the same species that inhabit a given location |
| predator | a carnivore which kills its own food |
| community | all of the interacting organism of different species in a given location |
| biotic | factors that are living |
| saphrophyte | ingests decaying organic material |
| bioshphere | entire region of the world where living things are found |
| decomposer | those heterotrophic fungi and bacteria which live on dead matter |
| producer | also called autotrophs |
| heterotroph | can not synthesize their own food and are dependent on other organisms for food |
| autotroph | can synthesize their own food from inorganic compounds and a usable energy source |
| biomass | amount of organic matter |
| abiotic | physical - nonliving |
| ecosystem | all the member of a community plus the abiotic (physical) factors influencing them |
| carrying capacity | the maximum number of organisms the resources of the area can support |
| prey | animals that the predators kill |
| symbiosis | living together with another organism in close association |
| mutualism | both organisms benefit from the association (++) |
| commensalism | one organism is benefited and the other is unharmed (+0) |
| parasitism | organism the parasite benefits at the expense of the host (+-) |
| food chain | a simple series of steps indicating the transfer of energy from producer through a series of organisms which feed upon each other |
| food web | a series of interrelated food chains |
| succession | replacement of populations in habitat as it moves toward a stable state |
| pioneer organisms | first organisms to inhabit a given location |
| niche | role of an organism |
| habitat | where on organism or species lives |
| competition | occurs when two different species or organisms living in the same environment utilize the same limited resources |
