| A | B |
|---|
| Habitat | an organisms address |
| Habitat | a place where an organism lives |
| Habitat | your neighborhood |
| Habitat | an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular animal and plant species |
| Biotic factors | animals |
| Energy pyramid | a diagram that compares the amount of energy available to populations at different levels of the food chain |
| Energy pyramid | shows how incoming solar energy is transferred in an ecosystem |
| Biogeochemical cycles | naturally occurring physical |
| Biogeochemical cycles | examples are evaporation |
| Biogeochemical cycle | a pathway by which a chemical elements or molecules moves throughout Earth |
| Abiotic factors | nonliving components of the biosphere |
| Abiotic factors | temperature and water |
| Population | example is all of the monarch butterflies in McHenry County |
| Population | organisms of the same species residing in a defined space the same time |
| Population | example all of the eagles in the Rocky Mountains |
| Population | a group of organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area |
| Community | a group of interacting organisms in the park |
| Community | all the plants and animals sharing an environment |
| Limiting factors | food and water supply |
| Limiting factors | resources that control a process such as organism growth |
| Limiting factors | limit the growth or activities of an organism or restrict the size of a population or its geographical range |
| Ecological Niche | the function or position of an organism or population within an ecological community |
| Ecological Niche | where an organism lives and also what it does |
| Biodiversity | the variety of different types of life found on Earth |
| Biodiversity | measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems |
| Biodiversity | can refer to genetic variation |
| Carrying capacity | the maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely |
| Carrying capacity | is represented by a J-shaped curve that turns into and S-shaped cure as the population grows |
| Decomposer | examples include fungi |
| Decomposer | heterotrophic organism that breaks down biotic material that is no longer living |
| Decomposer | a group of organisms that return nutrients to the soil for plants to use which is vital to an ecosystem |
| Food chain | a linear representation of energy transfer from organism to organism |
| Food chain | example: sun-->acorn-->deer-->wolf |
| Food chain | arrows show linear direction of energy flow from organism to organism |
| Food Web | combination of several food chains resulting in a more realistic representation of the biotic community |
| Food web | a pictorial 2D representation of the transfer of energy through an ecosystem |
| Photoautotroph | self-feeding by light where the organisms get their energy through the process of photosynthesis |
| Photoautotroph | examples include some bacteria |
| Photoautotroph | a type of primary producer which is often found at the beginning of a food chain and the bottom of an energy pyramid |
| Population Growth | number of births minus number of deaths in a population |
| Population Growth | logistic or exponential are types |
| Population growth | a rate that is regulated by resource availability |
| Population growth | representation of how the amount of individuals of the same species in the specific area changes |
| Population size | the amount of organisms of the same species in a given area |
| Primary consumer | an herbivore |
| Primary consumer | organisms that consume photoautotrophs |
| Primary consumer | are eaten by carnivores |
| Exponential growth | rate of population increase that creates a J-shaped curve when graphed |
| Exponential growth | rate of increase is often called “uncontrolled” based on the fact that it is not regulated by limiting factors |
| Secondary consumer | a carnivore that eats herbivores |
| Secondary consumer | examples are fox |
| 10% Rule | the phenomenon that explains why there are not infinite trophic levels |
| 10% Rule | the result of energy being lost as heat or used for metabolic processes or growth |
| 10% Rule | producers in an ecosystem create 1000 Cal of energy and the consumers only receive 100 of the 1000 Cal |
| Logistic growth | represented by an s-shaped curve when the number of individuals in a population is compared to time |
| Trophic level | a certain position in a food chain or energy pyramid |
| Trophic level | examples are photoautotroph |
