| A | B |
|---|
| Abiotic | Non-living parts of an ecosystem |
| Biotic | Living parts of an ecosystem |
| Food chain | Pathway which energy follows from producer to consumer |
| Producer | Organism that is capable of making its own food |
| Consumer | Organism that relies on producers as a food source |
| Predator | One that captures, kills, and consumes another |
| Prey | One that us captured, killed and consumed by another |
| Carrying capacity | Number of individuals of a species that an ecosystem can support |
| Ecosystem | All the biotic and abiotic parts of an environment |
| Ecology | Study of organisms and their environment |
| Biosphere | Area on and around earth where life exists |
| Community | All the populations in an area |
| Population | All the members of a species in an area |
| Species | Group of organisms capable of producing fertile offspring in the natural environment |
| Habitat | Physical area where an organism lives |
| Niche | The way of life of a species, the role the species plays in its ecosystem |
| Herbivore | Animals that eat only plants |
| Carnivore | Animals that eat only other animals |
| Omnivore | Animals that eat both plants and animals |
| diversity | a variety of organisms |
| consumer | animals that eat other animals as food |
| producer | organisms that can make their own food (like plants) |
| autotroph | another name for a plant or producer |
| heterotroph | another name for an animal or consumer |
| carnivore | organisms that eat meat (lions, tigers) |
| herbivore | organisms that eat plants only (sheep, cows) |
| omnivore | organsims that eat both plants and animals (humans) |
| scavenger | organism that gets nutrients from dead animals (vulture) |
| niche | role of an organism in an ecosystem |
| predator | captures, kills and consumes another organism |
| prey | the organism eaten by the predator |
| mutualism | both organisms benefit from their association |
| commensalism | one organism benefits, the other is not affected |
| parasitism | one organism benefits, the other is harmed |
| ecosystem | all of the organisms and the non-living environment found in a place |
| pyramid of biomass | organic material in an ecosystem |
| pyramid of energy | amount of energy that can be transferred to the next level |
| competition | two or more organisms want (and fight for) the same resource (like water) |
| abiotic factor | non living parts of the ecosystem |
| community | all biotic factors in a given area |
| population | number of specific species in a given area |
| biotic factor | all living organisms in an ecosystem |
| biosphere | area of earth where biotic factors are found |
| carrying capacity | number of individuals of a species the ecosystem can support |
| population density | number of a species in a specific area |
| producer | another term for autotroph |
| host | organism that is harmed in a parasitic relationship |
| symbiosis | close, long term relationship between two different types of organisms |
| TUNDRA BIOME | treeless plains that are the coldest of all the biomes |
| DETRITIVORE | heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (dead organic materials) |
| scavenger | animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators |
| tropical rain forest | most diverse and hottest terrestrial biome, biome near the equator with warm climate wet weather and lush plant growth |
| savanna grassland | scattered individual trees, large herbivores, and three distinct seasons based primarily on rainfall, maintained by occasional fires and drought |
| Boreal "taiga" forest | long, cold winters ans small amounts of precipitation; characterized by a northern coniferous forest composed of pine, fir, hemlock, and spruce tree and acidic, mineral-poor topsoils |
| hot desert | low moisture levels and infrequent and unpredictable precipitation; daily and seasonal temperatures fluctuate widely; because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all |
| biome | a group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms |
| climate | the average annual conditions of temperature, precipitation, winds, and clouds in an area |
| detritivore | organisms which feed on dead or decaying organic matter |
