Ecology Vocab

All the living things in a particular area and their relationship to eachother and the environment

The study of ecosystems (living organisms and the physical environment)

a scientist who studies the relationship between the environment and living things

Consequences of your actions

A description, information that you gather using your five senses and instruments

A conclusion based on an observation or a series of observations

A species that is introduced by humans to a new environment(exotic, non-native)

A species or organism with a backbone

classification of organisms, both plant and animal, based on their structural characteristics

A group of individuals of a single species that live in the same place

a group of organisms that can interbreed

A diagram that models the feeding relationship within an ecosystem, more complex than a food chain

organisms that get their energy by eating food(heterotrophs)

Animals that eat only plants (primary consumers)

An animal that eats other animals

An animal that eats both plants and meat

Population increase and decrease due to limiting factors (such as number of prey available, number of predators, space, etc)

Organisms that use the sun’s light energy to produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis

An organism that eats dead organisms and waste from living organisms (nematodes, bacteria, worms, and fungi)

The variable that causes the dependent variable to change (i.e time, temperature)

The variable you are trying to predict or the effect of the independent variable

The number of species found in a given habitat or environment

Warm-blooded organism, body temerature regulated from within

Cold-blooded organism- body temperature regulated by exterior environment (ecto-outer, external)

Close ecological relationship between the individuals of two (or more) different species, “living together” (symbiosis)

A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed, not fatal (ex. Viruses, leeches, tapeworm)

A relationship between two organisms in which both organisms benefit (ex. Bees get nectar from flower and flower gets pollinated)

A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is not affected much

A predator/prey relationship

Microscopic animals and plants

Microscopic plants that are the basis of many aquatic food webs

microscopic animals

The process by which plants/producers use sunlight as energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into food and oxygen

The type of area/environment an organism normally lives in (includes biotic and abiotic factors)

The "living" factors that influence a species population

"non-living" factors that influence a species' population

Part of a cell that provides structure and protection, helps to stiffen cells and prevent them from collapsing

Where photosynthesis tkes place, part of the plant that contains the light absorbing green pegment

A small cavity containing fluid which provides structure to the inside of a cell, found within the cytoplasm

A jelly-like material that surrounds the nucleus and contains most of the cell's organelles