Ecology and Food Chains Quiz

Ecology

• Ecology - the study of interactions among organisms and their environment
• Biosphere - the portion of the Earth that supports life
• Abiotic Factors - non-living components of an environment (sunlight, water, soil, air, temperature)
• Biotic Factors - all the living things that inhabit an environment (animals, plants, monerans, fungi, protists)
• Ecosystem - a community and its abiotic environment, interactions among populations in a community with each other and the abiotic factors
• Community - a group of interacting populations
• Population - a group of organisms all the same species in an area
• Niche - the role or job an organism has in its environment
• Habitat - the place an organism lives out its life

Food Chains and Food Webs

• Food chain - a simple model to show energy flow in an ecosystem (very linear)
• Trophic Level - the feeding steps that are found in food chains and food webs
• Autotroph - an organism that can make its own food
• Heterotroph - an organism that cannot make its own food and must feed on others for energy
• Scavenger - animals that feed on organisms that have already died
• Decomposer - organisms that break down and absorb nutrients from dead organisms
• Food Web - shows all the feeding relationships in the environment

Symbiosis

• Symbiosis - any close permanent relationship among organisms of different species
• Mutualism - a relationship in which both organisms benefit
• Commensalism - a relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected
• Parasitism - a relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of another