Reading: Ecology

Communities

Vocab

Ecology: The study of how living organisms interact with each other and their environment.

Abiotic Factor: A physical aspect of an environment, also known as a non-living factor.

Biotic Factor: A living aspect of the environment.

Niche: The role of a species in its ecosystem, which includes the way that the species interacts with the abiotic and biotic factors in its environment.

Habitat: A location where a specific population of a species lives.

Competitive Exclusion Principle: The idea that two species cannot occupy the same niche in the same place for a long period of time.

Food Chain: A diagram showing a single pathway through which energy and matter flow through an ecosystem.

Food Web: A diagram that represents multiple pathways through which energy and matter flow through an ecosystem.

Trophic Level: The feeding positions in a food chain or food web.

Biomass: The total mass or organisms at a specific trophic level.

Producer (or autotroph): An organism that creates its own food. Can be divided into photoautotrophs and chemoautotrophs.

Consumer (or heterotroph): An organism that consumes other organisms for energy. Can be classified as a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore.

Decomposer: An organism that breaks down the remains of producers and consumers and releases simple inorganic molecules back into the environment. Can be classified as a scavenger, detritivore, or saprotroph.

Levels of Organization

Organism: One (A)
Population: Group of individuals of the same species living in the same area (AAAAA)
Community: Different populations living together in an area (AAA + BBB + CCC)
Ecosystem: all the communities in an area + all the non-living components of the environment (AAA + BBB + CCC + non-living)
Biome: group of ecosystem with the same climate and similar communities (example: desert biome)
Biosphere: part of the Earth in which life exists, including air, land, and water