APES Chapter 4 Vocab Words
Terms
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- Biosphere
- Portion of earch in which living (biotic) organisms exist and interact with one another and their nonliving (abiotic) environment
- Population
- Group of interacting individuals of the same species that occupy a specific area at a specific time
- Community
- A complex interacting network of plants, animals, and microorganisms
- Ecosystem
- A community of different species interacting with one another AND with their nonliving environment of matter and energy
- Autotroph
- An organism that can synthesize its own food
- Heterotroph
- Can't synthesize the nutrients that it needs to survive
- Symbiotic relationship
- A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
- Mutualism
- Both organisms benefit from each other
- Commensalism
- Two things that live together...one benefits and the other isn't affected
- Parasitism
- 1 organisms benefits, one is harmed (tapeworm)
- Habitat
- The place where a population (or individual organism) normally lives
- Niche
- The "job" or "role" that an organism plays in an ecosystem
- Producer
- Use solar or chemical energy to make their own food
- Consumer
- Organisms that cannot synthesize the nutrients they need to survive (must get from some other source...heterotrophs)
- Decomposer
- An organism, often a bacterium or fungus, that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, thus making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem.
- Food Chain
- Sequence of organisms, each of which is a source of food for the next. Determines how energy and nutrientes move from one organism to another through the ecosystem
- Food Web
- A complex network of interconnected food chains in an ecosystem
- Energy Pyramid
- Pyramid that shows the relative energy available at each "level" in an ecosystem
- Ecological Succession
- Process where a natural community moves from simpler organisms to more complex ones
- Carrying Capacity (K)
- The maximum number of individuals that a given environment can support without detrimental effects (toatl NPP [Net Primary Productivity])