Download Vocabulary Document - Kawameeh Middle School

Name: ___________________________________________
6th Grade Science
Date: ________________
Period: _______________
Unit 2: Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems Vocabulary
Lesson 1: Ecosystems
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Ecosystem: all the living things and nonliving things in a given area.
Abiotic Factor: the non-living parts of an ecosystem.
Biotic Factors: living or ONCE living things in an ecosystem.
Habitat: the place within an ecosystem that provides food, water, shelter, and other
biotic and abiotic factors an organism needs to survive and reproduce
5. Population: all the organisms of the same species that live in the same area at the same
time.
6. Community: all the populations living in the same area at the same time.
7. Population density: the size of a population compared to the amount of space available.
𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑠
𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒.
Lesson 2: Relationships within and Ecosystem
1. Niche: the way a species interacts with abiotic and biotic factors to obtain food, find
shelter, and fulfill other needs.
2. Competition: describes the demand for resources, such as food, water, and shelter,
in short supply in a community.
3. Overpopulation: occurs when a population becomes so large that it causes damage
to the environment.
4. Predation: the act of one organism, a predator, feeding on another organism, its
prey.
5. Predator: the organism that does the killing
6. Prey: the organism that is killed.
7. Symbiosis: is a close, long term relationship between two species that usually
involves an exchange of food of energy.
(Lesson 2 Vocab continued on back)
8. Mutualism: a symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.
9. Commensalism: a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the
other neither benefits nor is harmed.
10. Parasitism: a symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits while the other
is harmed.
11. Parasite: one organism living on or inside another organism and harming it.
12. Host: the organism that a parasite lives in or on.
Lesson 3: Matter & Energy in Ecosystems
1. Producer: organisms that use an outside energy source, such as the sun, and
produce their own food.
2. Consumer: organisms that cannot make their own food.
3. Herbivore: consumers that eat only plants.
4. Carnivores: consumers that eat only animals.
5. Omnivores: consumers that eat both plants and animals.
6. Scavenger: a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.
7. Decomposers: break down wastes and dead organisms and return raw materials
to the ecosystem.
8. Food chain: a model that shows how energy flows in an ecosystem.
9. Food web: a model of energy transfer that can show how the food chains in the
community are interconnected.
10. Energy pyramid: shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level
to another in a food web.