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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Abiotic Factor |
nonliving factors in an environment |
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Biotic Factor |
living things within an environment |
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Habitat |
an environment in which an organism lives |
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herbivore |
an animal that feeds on plants |
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omnivore |
an animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin |
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producer |
An autotrophic organism capable of producing complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules through the process of photosynthesis |
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heterotroph |
an organism that cannot fix carbon from inorganic sources but uses organic carbon for growth |
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Food Chain |
a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food |
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Population |
the number of species living in one particular area |
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Population Density |
a measure of how many organisms are living in one specific unit of space |
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Population Model |
a type of mathematical model that is applied to the study of population dynamics |
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Density Independent Factor |
Any factor limiting the size of a population whose effect is dependent on the number of individuals in the population |
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Biome |
A large community of plants and animals that occupies a distinct region |
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Community |
all living things within an area/ecosystem |
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Organism |
one single living thing |
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consumer |
An organism that generally obtains food by feeding on other organisms or organic matter due to lack of the ability to manufacture own food from inorganic sources; a heterotroph |
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detritivore |
An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the ecosystem |
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decomposer |
An organism whose ecological function involves the recycling of nutrients by performing the natural process of decomposition as it feeds on dead or decaying organisms |
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Primary Consumer |
Any organism that consumes or feeds on autotrophs or decaying matter |
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Tertiary Consumer |
a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers |
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Population Size |
the actual number of individuals in a population |
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Dispersion |
A specific type of organism can establish one of three possible patterns |
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Exponential Growth Curve |
a runaway expansion, such as in population growth |
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Density Dependent Factor |
Any factor limiting the size of a population whose effect is dependent on the number of individuals in the population |
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Biosphere |
largest level of classification, contains all of the life supporting area on earth |
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Ecosystem |
all of the living/non-living factors within a specific location |
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carnivore |
an animal that feeds on flesh |
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trophic levels |
the position that an organism occupies in a food chain - what it eats, and what eats it |
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autotroph |
An organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances using light or chemical energy, ex. green plants |
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Secondary Consumer |
An organism that largely feeds on primary consumers |
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Food Web |
a graphical model depicting the many food chains linked together to show the feeding relationships of organisms in an ecosystem |
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Carrying Capacity |
the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities available in the environment |
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Logistic Model |
A fundamental population growth model in ecology |
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r-strategist |
(One of the two) An evolutionary strategy for those species that produce many "cheap" offspring and live in unstable environments |
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k-strategist |
(One of the two) An evolutionary strategy for species that produce few "expensive" offspring and live in stable environments |
