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Ecosystems
All the living things in a particular area and their relationship to eachother and the environment
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Ecology
The study of ecosystems (living organisms and the physical environment)
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Ecologist
a scientist who studies the relationship between the environment and living things
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Trade-off
Consequences of your actions
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Observations
A description, information that you gather using your five senses and instruments
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Inference
A conclusion based on an observation or a series of observations
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Introduced secies
A species that is introduced by humans to a new environment(exotic, non-native)
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Vertebrate
A species or organism with a backbone
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Linnaeus' taxonomy
classification of organisms, both plant and animal, based on their structural characteristics
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Population
A group of individuals of a single species that live in the same place
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Species
a group of organisms that can interbreed
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Food web
A diagram that models the feeding relationship within an ecosystem, more complex than a food chain
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Consumer
organisms that get their energy by eating food(heterotrophs)
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Herbivores
Animals that eat only plants (primary consumers)
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Carnivore
An animal that eats other animals
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Omnivore
An animal that eats both plants and meat
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Population fluxuation
Population increase and decrease due to limiting factors (such as number of prey available, number of predators, space, etc)
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Producer
Organisms that use the sun’s light energy to produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis
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Decomposer
An organism that eats dead organisms and waste from living organisms (nematodes, bacteria, worms, and fungi)
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Independent variable
The variable that causes the dependent variable to change (i.e time, temperature)
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Dependent variable
The variable you are trying to predict or the effect of the independent variable
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Biodiversity
The number of species found in a given habitat or environment
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Endotherm
Warm-blooded organism, body temerature regulated from within
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Ectotherm
Cold-blooded organism- body temperature regulated by exterior environment (ecto-outer, external)
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Symbiotic relationship
Close ecological relationship between the individuals of two (or more) different species, “living together” (symbiosis)
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Parasitism
A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed, not fatal (ex. Viruses, leeches, tapeworm)
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Mutualism
A relationship between two organisms in which both organisms benefit (ex. Bees get nectar from flower and flower gets pollinated)
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Commensalism
A relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is not affected much
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Predation
A predator/prey relationship
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Plankton
Microscopic animals and plants
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Phytoplankton
Microscopic plants that are the basis of many aquatic food webs
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Zooplankton
microscopic animals
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Photosynthesis
The process by which plants/producers use sunlight as energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into food and oxygen
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Habitat
The type of area/environment an organism normally lives in (includes biotic and abiotic factors)
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Biotic factors
The "living" factors that influence a species population
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Abiotic factors
"non-living" factors that influence a species' population
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Cell walls
Part of a cell that provides structure and protection, helps to stiffen cells and prevent them from collapsing
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Chloroplasts
Where photosynthesis tkes place, part of the plant that contains the light absorbing green pegment
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Vacuole
A small cavity containing fluid which provides structure to the inside of a cell, found within the cytoplasm
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Cytoplasm
A jelly-like material that surrounds the nucleus and contains most of the cell's organelles
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