Need-to-Know Vocabulary
- Ecology- the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms
- Biosphere- the part of earths crust, waters, and atmosphere that supports life; the ecosystem comprising of the entire earth and the living organisms that inhabit it
- Biome- a complex biotic community characterized by distinctive plant and animal species and maintained under the climatic coinditions of the region, especially such a community that has developed to climax
- Ecosystem- a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment
- Community- an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area
- Population- the assemblage of a specific type of organism living in a given area; all of the individuals or species in a given area
- Species- a class of individuals (or organisms) having some common characteristics or qualities; distict sort or kind; also are only able to breed with one another, not one from a different species.
- Habitat-the natural environment of an organism; the place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism
- Niche- the position or funstion of an orgnism in a community of plants and animals
- Biotic Factors- the living things (organisms)
- Abiotic Factors- nonliving things (organisms)
- Food Web- a series of organisms related by predator-prey and consumer-resource imnteractions; the entirety of interrelated food chains in an ecological community
- Food Chain- a series of organisms interrelsted in their feeding habits, the smalled being fed upon by a larger one, which in turn feeds a still larger one, etc.
- Ecological Pyramid- a graphical representation in the shape of a pyramid to show the feeding relationship of groups of organisms, and the flow of energy or biomass throuh the different trophic levels in a given ecosystem
- Pyramid of Energy-shows relative amount of energy available at each trophic level
- Pyramid of Biomass- represents the amount of living matter at each trophic level
- Pyramid of Numbers- shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level
- Competition- the struggle among organisms, both of the same and different species, for food, space, and other vital requirements
- Predation- a relation between animals in which one organisms capture and feeds on another
- Symbiosis-the living together of two dissimilar organisms, as in mutualism, commensalism, or parasitism; a relationship between two organisms
- Commensalism- a relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed
- Mutualism- a relationship between two organisms in which both organisms benefit
- Parasitism- a relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits but the other is hurt
All of the definitions above are from dictionary.com and the Prentice Hall Biology Textbook
The image at the top of the page is from: http://danosky.wikispaces.com/Chapter+2+Principles+of+Ecology