H abitat

1. Habitat • Is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism.

2. Primary Succession • the development of communities in an area with no soil or biotic elements (e.g. bare rock).

3. Niche • Is a term describing the way of life of a species.

4. Decomposer • An organism that breaks down dead organisms

5. Heterotroph/Consumer • An organism that has to eat other living things to survive (aka consumer)

6. Autotroph/Producer • Any organism able to make its own food (aka Producer)

7. Food Web • A diagram showing all of the interconnected food chains in an ecosystem

8. Food Chain • A diagram showing how energy passes from one organism to the next in an ecosystem

9. Trophic Level • The trophic level is the position that an organism occupies in a food chain - what it eats, and what eats it.

10. Carrying Capacity • The largest population size an ecosystem can hold.

11. Limiting Factor • The scarcest resource that limits a populations size.

12. Mutualism • A type of symbiosis where two organisms benefit from their relationship with each other.

13. Parasitism • A type of relationship where one organism benefits while the other organism is harmed.

14. Commensalism • A type of symbiosis where one species benefits and the other is not helped or harmed.

15. Biotic • Living part of the environment; includes anything made by a living organism

16. Abiotic • Non living part of the environment

17. 10% Rule • The amount of energy that is transferred from one trophic level to another

18. Ecology • Is the scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with each other and with their natural environment.

19. Ecosystem • Living and nonliving things interacting in an area

20. Biosphere • All of the living space on earth.

21. Biological Community • All of the different populations of organisms living in an area.

22. Population • All of the members of the same species in an area.