Download Quiz 1 Study List - World of Science

Quiz 7 Study List 2017
Grade Science – Miss Fox
Life Science - Biomes and Ecosystems
6th
Ecology: the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment.
The five levels of organization in the environment, from smallest to largest are: organism/individual,
population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere.
Population: a group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographical area.
Community: all the populations of species that live in the same habitat and interact with each other.
Ecosystem: a community of organisms and their abiotic environment.
Biome: a large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plant and animal
communities.
Biosphere: the part of Earth where life exists.
Biotic: describes living factors in the environment.
Abiotic: describes the nonliving part of the environment, including water, rocks, light and temperature.
Classification: grouping things according to similarities.
Producer: organism that makes its own food
Consumer: organism that obtains food by eating other organisms
Herbivore: consumer that only eats plants
Carnivore: consumer that only eats animals
Omnivore: consumer that eats both plants and animals
Decomposer: organism that breaks down the wastes or remains of other organisms
Competition: struggle among organisms for resources in an ecosystem
Predator: organism that kills and eats another organism
Prey: organism that is killed and eaten by another organism
Food chain: way of showing how the energy from food moves through populations of organisms in a
community; from producer to consumers and decomposers. A producer is always the first link of a food chain.
Food web: way of showing how several food chains are related. Many organisms are a food source to more
than one organism.
Arrows: show the direction the energy is moving.
.
Energy pyramid: way of showing how energy moves through a food chain. Along a food chain, approximately
10 percent (10% rule) of the available energy is transferred to the next level. The rest of the energy is used to
movement/motion, waste, maintenance, reproduction and growth. Some energy is stored some is lost into
the environment as heat.
Adaptation: is any structure or behavior of an organism that increases its chances of surviving and
reproducing. Be prepared to give examples of structural and behavioral adaptation.
Structural adaptations are physical features of an organism like the bill on a bird or the fur on a bear. The
structural adaptations of walruses (thick skin to protect against cold conditions), hippopotamuses (nostrils on
the top of the snout), and ducks (webbed feet).
Behavioral adaptations are the things organisms do to survive. For example, bird calls and migration are
behavioral adaptations.
Adaptations are the result of evolution. Evolution is a change in a species over long periods of time. Over time,
animals that are better adapted to their environment survive and breed (reproduce). Animals that are not well
adapted to an environment may not survive. The characteristics that help a species survive in an environment
are passed on to future generations. Those characteristics that don't help the species survive slowly disappear.