Biology Unit 12: Ecology

Producers get energy from chemicals or the sun, and with the help of water, convert that energy into usable energy in the form of sugar, or food.

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factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems

Abiotic

living things

Biotic

one organism benefits with no effects to the other

Commensalism

interacting group of various species in a common location

Community

is an interaction between organisms or species in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another interspecific competition- competition between two or more different species

Competition

is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system

Ecosystem

both organisms benefits

Mutualism

one organism benefits with the extent of harm on another

Parasitism

a group of individuals belonging to the same species that live in the same region at the same time

Populations

organisms that make their own food from sunlight and/or chemical energy from deep sea vents

Primary producers

a close, long-term interaction between two different species

Symbiosis

What are primary producers known as?

autotrophs

chemosynthetic bacteria that make their food energy from chemicals in hydrothermal vents

autotrophs

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

carrying capacity

organisms of an ecological food chain which receive energy by consuming other organisms

consumers

What are consumers formally referred to as?

heterotrophs

Heterotrophs include:...?

include animals, bacteria and fungi.

competition that only involves one species

intraspecific competition

environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem

limiting factor

What is the most common example of a producer?

plants

What is the base of every food chain?

primary producers

organisms that make their own food; they are also known as autotrophs

producers