biology-chapter 2
Terms
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- biological community
- made up of interacting populations in a certain area at a certain time
- commensalism
- a symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither harmed nor benefited
- symbiosis
- the relationship in which there is a close and permanent association between organisms of different species
- heterotroph
- an organism that cannot make its own food and fees on other organisms
- food web
- a model that shows all the possible feeding relationships at each trophic livel in a community
- biotic factors
- all the living organisms that inhabit an environment
- mutualism
- a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit
- habitat
- the place where an organism lives out its life
- trophic level
- each organism in a food chain represents a feeding step
- autotroph
- a producer or an organism that uses light energy or energy stored in chemical compounds to make energy-rich compound
- biosphere
- the portion of earth that supports living things
- ecosystem
- made up of interacting populations in a biological community and the community's abiotic factors; these are subject to change
- ecology
- the study of interaactions that take place between organisms and their environment
- food chain
- a simple model that scientists use to show how matter and energy move through an ecosystem
- decomposers
- break down the complex compounds of dead and decaying plants and animals into simpler molecules that can be more easily absorbed
- parasitism
- a symbiotic relationship in which a memeber of one species derives benefit at the expense of another species
- biomass
- the total weight of living matter at each trophic level
- abiotic factors
- the nonliving parts of an organism's enviroment
- niche
- all strategies and adaptations a species uses in its environment-how it meets its specific needs for food, shelter, how and where it survives, and where it reproduces
- population
- a group of organisms all of the same species which interbreed and live in the same area at the same time