| A | B |
|---|
| Ecosystem | All the living things and nonliving things in a given area. |
| Biome | A geographic area on Earth that contains ecosystems with similar biotic and abiotic features. |
| Symbiosis (symbiotic) | A close, long-term relationship between two species that usually involves an exchange of food or energy. |
| Producer | An organism that uses an outside energy source, such as the Sun, and produces its own food. |
| Consumer | An organism that cannot make its own food an gets energy by eating other organisms. |
| Food Chain | A model that shows how energy flows In an ecosystem through feeding relationships. |
| Food Web | A model of energy transfer that can show how the food chains in a community are interconnected. |
| Niche | An organism's particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes its living. |
| Mutualism | A relationship between two species in which both species benefit |
| Parasitism | A relationship between two organisms of different species where one benefits and the other is harmed or dies |
| Commensalism | A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
| abiotic factors | Non-living parts of an organism's habitat. They include soil type, sunlight, water amount, ect. |
| biotic factors | All the living or once living organisms that inhabit an environment |
| Predation | An interaction in which one organism kills another for food. |
| competition | the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources |
| Decomposer | An organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms |
| Limiting Factors | Conditions in the environment that put limits on where an organism can live; food, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism, predation, and nesting sites. |
| carrying capacity | Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support |
| energy pyramid | A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| Autotroph | an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide. |
| Heterotroph | organism that obtains energy from the foods it consumes; also called a consumer |
| Detritivore | organism that eats dead organic matter |
