Download Population- a group of organisms of the same species living

Ecology Vocabulary Definitions… (not in order – you have to work a little )
Population - a group of organisms of the same species living together in the same area
Producers - An organism that is able to make its own food by using a source of energy to turn simple raw
materials into food
Food Webs - A diagram that consists of many different food chains
Competition - An interaction in which organisms struggle with one another to get resources
Commensalism - A form of symbiosis in which one organism benefits and the other is unharmed
Ecology - The branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.
Predation - The act of one organism killing and eating another
Consumers - An organism that cannot make its own food (it eats other organisms)
Abiotic Factor - Nonliving features in an environment, made of atoms
Species - A group of similar organisms that can produce offspring
Ecosystem - An area consisting of all the biotic and abiotic features that interact with one another
Niche - An organism’s role in an ecosystem which includes everything the organism does and needs within its
environment
Symbiosis - A close relationship between two organisms in which one organism lives near, on, or even
inside another organism and in which at least one organism benefits
Mutualism - A form of symbiosis in which both organisms benefit
Community - All the biotic features in an ecosystem
Habitat - The place where an organism lives and gets the resources it needs to live
Biotic Factors - Living features in the environment
Parasitism - A form of symbiosis in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed
Environment - All the living and non-living features an organism interacts with - surroundings
Molecules - The smallest particle of a substance that still has the physical and chemical properties of that substancecomposed of 2 or more atoms
Energy Transfer - Movement of food energy through a food chain, each higher level has less available energy than the
level before.
Adaptation - Changes in behaviors and physical characteristics of a species that makes them better suited for the
environment.
Food Chains - A representation of events where food energy is transferred from one organism to another
Balance / Equilibrium - A condition which all acting influences are cancelled by others resulting in a stable, unchanging
system
Classification - The assignment of organisms to groups within a system of categories distinguished by internal and
external structure
Natural Selection - the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as
predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus
ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.
Biome - a complex biotic community characterized by distinctive plant and animal species and maintained under the
climatic conditions of the region, especially such a community that has developed to climax.
Decomposer - an organism, usually a bacterium or fungus that breaks down the cells of dead plants and animals into
simpler substances.