Science
el vocab de ecology de science!!
Terms
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- top carnivore
- carnivore on top of the food chain; highest
- greenhouse effect
- an atmospheric heating phenomenon, caused by short-wave solar radiation being readily transmitted less readily transmitted outward, owing to its absorption by atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and other gases; thus, the rising level of carbon dioxide is viewed with concern
- zero population growth
- when the population stays the same (equilibrium)
- producer
- an organism that uses photosynthesis (and thus, energy from the sun) to obtain its energy
- immigration
- species moving into an ecosystem
- carrying capacity
- the amount of organisms an ecosystem can support
- population
- a group of organisms of one species that interbreed and live in the same place at the same time
- community
- collection of interacting populations
- biotic
- all living organisms of an organism's environment
- competition
- a compete for space, foof, water and shelter
- herbivore
- heterotrophs that feed only on plants
- consumer
- an organism that eats producers or other consumers to obtain its energy
- emigration
- species moving out of an ecosystem
- biomass
- the amount of living matter in a given habitat, expressed either as the weight of organisms per unit area or as the volume of organisms per unit volume of habitat
- cellular respiration
- reaction where carbon dioxide is released back into the air
- photosynthesis
- when plants use light energy to combine carbon dioxidefrom the atmosphere and water from soil; produce glucose and oxygen
- density dependent
- limiting factors that increase defects as the population increases
- organism
- a form of life considered as an entity; an animal, plan, fungus, protistan, or moneran
- global warming
- an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect
- prey
- species being eaten
- ecosystem
- interaction among the populations in a community and the community's physical surroundings (biotic and abiotic factors)
- omnivore
- heterotrophs that feed in both plants and animal material
- predator
- species that feed on animals
- heterotroph
- organisms that cannot make their own food and must feed on other organisms
- autotroph
- organisms that use energy (from the sun or that is stored in chemical compounds) to manufacturate their own nutrients
- food web
- expresses all possible feedin relationships at each trophic level in an community, more realistic than a food chain as most organisms depend on more than one species for food
- nitrogen cycle
- a cycle where nitrogen is recycled
- phosphorous cycle
- a cycle where phosphorous is recycled
- birth rate
- number of births
- trophic level
- a feeding step representing the passage on energy and materials ina foos chain; each level/step represents an organism in the food chain
- ecology
- branch of biology developed from natural history, scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environments
- nitrogen fixation
- any process of combining atmospheric nitrogen with other elements
- species
- a class of individuals having some common characteristics or qualities; distinct sort of kind
- equilibrium
- population mantaining themselves around the carrying capacity
- abiotic
- non-living parts of an organisms enviropnment
- decomposer
- organisms that break down and absorb nutrients from dead organisms; break down the complex compounds of dead and decaying plants and animals into simpler molecules that can be more easily absorbed
- density independent
- limiting factors that affect when a population, regardless of the size
- energy
- the capacity of a physical system to do work
- food chain
- a simple model that scientists use to show how matter and ebergy move through an ecosystem
- predation
- when a predator searches and eats its prey
- death rate
- number of deaths
- carbon cycle
- cycle where carbon is recycled
- parasitism
- symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither harmed nor benefited
- growth rate
- the rate at which something grows
- carnivore
- heterotrophs that feed only on other animals
- exponential growth
- a j-curved graph that shows when a population increases rapidly
- nutrients
- chemicals that are essential to living things