Vocabulary List 8

Front 1

overpopulation

Back 1

Excessive populations in an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, or environmental breakdown.

Front 2

natural selection

Back 2

The changes that animals make to enable them to be better suited to live successfully in their ecosystem.

Front 3

adaptations

Back 3

The behaviors and physical characteristics of species that allow them to live successfully in their ecosystem.

Front 4

niche

Back 4

An organism's role, or how it makes its living in the ecosystem. This could include type of food eaten, how it obtains that food, what eats it for food, method and schedule of reproduction.

Front 5

competition

Back 5

The struggle between organisms to survive in their habitat with limited resources.

Front 6

predation

Back 6

An interaction in which one organism kills and eats another.

Front 7

predator

Back 7

The organism that does the killing in predation

Front 8

prey

Back 8

The organism that is killed in predation.

Front 9

mutualism

Back 9

A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit in the relationship.

Front 10

commensalism

Back 10

A symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits and the other is neither helped or hurt by the relationship.

Front 11

parasitism

Back 11

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives on or inside another organism and harms that organism.

Front 12

parasite

Back 12

The organism that benefits in parasitism, the organism that lives on or inside another organism. (Flea, Tick, Heartworm)

Front 13

host

Back 13

The organism that the parasite lives on or inside and is hurt in the relationship called parasitism.

Front 14

succession

Back 14

A gradual and natural change in an ecosystem over a long period of time.

Front 15

primary succession

Back 15

A series of changes that take place where no ecosystem has ever existed before. This happens where there is no existing soil (bare rock).

Front 16

pioneer species

Back 16

The first species to populate a new ecosystem in primary succession, usually these are lichens or some type of moss.

Front 17

secondary succession

Back 17

A series of changes that take place after a disturbance has happened in an ecosystem (forest fire, hurricane, tornado, drought, farming, logging, mining) There is existing soil already in place.

Front 18

ecology

Back 18

Scientists who study how all the biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem are related. These scientists study how organisms react to changes in their environment.