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Ecology Questions and Answers Already Passed Ecology ✔✔the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment population ✔✔group of individuals of the s... ame species that live in the same area Community ✔✔different populations that live together in a certain area Ecosystem ✔✔all organisms that live in their place, together with their abiotic environment Biosphere ✔✔the part of earth where life exists Biome ✔✔A large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plant and animal communities Autotroph ✔✔Producer : organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds Heterotroph ✔✔Consumer :organism that obtains energy from the foods it consumes( eats) Producer ✔✔an organism that gets energy form the sun as food in a process called photosynthesis consumer ✔✔heterotroph: organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food Food chain ✔✔series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten beginning with a producer. Food web ✔✔network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem Trophic level ✔✔each step in a food chain or food web ecological pyramid ✔✔diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter within each trophic level in a food chain or food web Biomass ✔✔total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level Biogeochemical cycle ✔✔process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another Limiting nutrient ✔✔single essential nutrient that limits productivity in an ecosystem niche ✔✔full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions symbiosis ✔✔relationship in which two species live closely together Primary succession ✔✔an ecological succession that begins in an area where no biotic community previously existed, no soil bare rock, example volcano secondary succession ✔✔succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil competetion ✔✔the struggle between two or more living things that depend on the same limited resource predation ✔✔interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism mutualism ✔✔symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship commensalism ✔✔symbiotic relationship in which one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed parasitism ✔✔Symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives in or on another organism (the host) and consequently harms it abiotic ✔✔Non-living biotic ✔✔Living nitrogen cycle ✔✔recycling nitrogen from one form to the other in the following processes: nitrogen fixation, intake of nitrogen into the organisms, decomposition, denitrification. carbon cycle ✔✔Carbon is released from organisms through respiration and decomposition. It is then recycled by photosynthetic producers converting to oxygen. 10 % rule ✔✔Only 10% of the total energy produced at each trophic level is available to the next level. invasive species ✔✔Species not native to ecosystem, but can thrive & displace native species Limiting factors ✔✔any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms Carrying capacity ✔✔The largest population that an environment can support at any given time [Show More]

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