Download eco notes part 1

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Abiotic: Non-living physical or chemical factors in the environment; for example: air,
sun, water and soil (minerals)
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Biotic: Living components in the environment such as humans, plants, birds,
microorganisms, and insects
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Ecosystem: all the interacting biotic and abiotic parts of an area; an ecosystem can be
large or small, but must contain all of the abiotic and biotic features.
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Organism: an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form.
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Individual : A single organism
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Population: a collection of organisms of the same species found in a specific
geographic area
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Population Density: The number of a species in a specific area
Community, also called biological community: an interacting group of various species
in a common location.
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Habitat: the natural environment where an organism lives
Producer: organism that makes its own food using abiotic components such as water, air,
nutrients, and sunlight
Consumer: organism that cannot make its own food; eats other organisms
Decomposer: organism that feeds on dead plants or animals; breaks complex molecules into
simpler nutrients.
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The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum
population size of the species that the environment can sustain, given the food, habitat,
water, and other necessities available in the environment.