Bio Chapter 3
Terms
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- populations
- groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area
- photosynthesis
- the process by which green plants and certain other organisms synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source and usually releasing oxygen aas a byproduct
- denitrification
- conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas
- biomass
- the total mass of living matter in a given unit area
- ecosystem
- The complex community of interdependent living things in a given environment.
- heterotroph
- an organism that depends on complex organic substances for nutrition
- autotrophs
- use energy from their environments to fuel the assembly of simple inorganic compounds into complex organic molecules
- decomposer
- eats and breaks down dead matter
- food web
- (ecology) a community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains
- biosphere
- the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the Earth (or other planet) where living organisms exist
- transpiration
- the passage of gases through fine tubes because of differences in pressure or temperature
- producers
- they make their own food
- nutrient
- any substance that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue
- deforestation
- the removal of trees
- trophic level
- each step in a food chain or food web
- omnivore
- a person who eats all kinds of foods
- detrivore
- a scavenger, such as an earthworm, that feeds on dead plant and animal matter
- consumer
- a person who uses goods or services, organisms that take in food material and are above producers on the energy pyramid
- primary productivity
- the rate at which organic matter is created by producers
- biome
- a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate
- herbivore
- any animal that feeds chiefly on grass and other plants
- ecological pyramid
- a diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic types of ecological pyramids: energy pyramids, biomass pyramids, and pyramids of numbers
- biogeochemical cycle
- any of the various chemical circuits which involve biotic and abiotic factors of an ecosystem
- chemosynthesis
- synthesis of carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water
- species
- A classificatory group of animals or plants subordinate to a genus.
- community
- (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
- limiting nutrient
- when an ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient that is scarce or cycles very slowly
- food chain
- (ecology) a community of organisms where each member is eaten in turn by another member
- nitrogen fixation
- the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by soil bacteria and its release for plant use on the death of the bacteria
- evaporation
- the process of becoming moisture
- carnivore
- any animal that feeds on flesh
- algal bloom
- an immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers that result from a large input of a limiting nutrient
- ecology
- the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment