| A | B |
|---|
| ecology | study of interactions between organisms and their environment |
| biotic | describes living factors in the environment |
| abiotic | describes nonliving factors in the environment |
| population | group of individuals of the same species that live in the same environment at the same time |
| community | all of the populations of different species the live and interact in an area |
| ecosystem | a community of organisms and its abiotic environment |
| biosphere | the part of the Earth where life exists |
| herbivore | a consumer that eats plants |
| carnivore | a consumer that eats animals |
| omnivore | a consumer that eats a variety of organisms |
| scavenger | an animal that feeds on the bodies of dead animals |
| food chain | a diagram that represents how energy flows from one organism to the next |
| food web | a complex diagram representing the many energy pathways in a real ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | a diagram shaped like a triangle that shows the loss of energy at each level of the food chain |
| habitat | the environment where an organism lives |
| niche | an organism's way of life and its relationship with its abiotic and biotic environments |
| carrying capacity | the largest population that a given environment can support over a long period of time |
| prey | an organism that is eaten by another organism |
| predator | an organism that eats other organisms |
| symbiosis | a close, long-term association between two or more species |
| mutualism | a symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit |
| commensalism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected |
| parasitism | a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed |
| biome | large regions characterized by climate and communities of species are grouped together |
| species | organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring |
| limiting factor | a needed resource that becomes scarce |
| competition | interaction between two or more individuals or populations when they try to use the same limited resource |
| immigration | a population increases in size when organisms move into an area |
