Saventofsass01 - Section 4.1

From KstructIB

Obj. 4.1 Communities and Ecosystems

1. Ecology: the study of how organisms interact with their environment

2. Ecosystem: a level of ecological study that includes all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; a community and its physical environment

3. Population: a group of individuals of one species that live in a particular geographic area.

4. Community: all the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction.

5. Species: a particular kind of organism; members possess similar anatomical characteristics and have the ability to interbreed.

6. Habitat: the area or natural environment in which an organism normally lives or grows.

7. The biosphere is the entire portion of Earth that is inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's communities and ecosystems.

8. The food chain is the pathway along which food is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers. Crickets feed on plants->mice eat crickets->snakes eat mice->hawks prey on snakes. Ants also feed on plants->preying mantis eats ants->owls feed on preying mantis. Hawks also feed on squirrels, which eat plants (acorns, etc)

9. The food web is the elaborate, interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem.

10. Trophic level: the division of species in an ecosystem on the basis of their main nutritional source. The trophic level that ultimately supports all others consists of autotrophs, or primary producers.

11. Quaternary consumers->Tertiary consumers->Secondary consumers- Primary consumers->Producers

12. Autotroph(producer): organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms. Use energy from the sun or from the oxidation of organic substances to make organic molecules from inorganic ones.

13. Heterotroph(consumer): organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products.

14. Detritivore: a member of a class of consumers tha derives its energy from organic wastes and dead organisms representing all trophic levels.

15. Saprotroph(decomposer): an organism that acts as a decomposer by absorbing nutrients from dead organic matter.