Ecology

• Ecology is the study of plants and animals' relationship with their environment.
• The biosphere is the part of the planet containing living organisms.
• An ecosystem is all plants and animals in an area interacting with each other and the environment.
• An ecosystem is all plants and animals in an area interacting with each other and the environment.
• Population is all the members of the same species living in an area.
• A community is all the different populations in an area.
• Abiotic factors are non-living factors.
• Edaphic factors relate to soil.
• Altitude, aspect, steepness, and exposure are all abiotic factors.
• Producers are organisms that photosynthesise to make food.
• Most of the energy produced in plants is lost and only 10% of it is passed onto the other organisms.
• Decomposers are organisms that feed off of dead plants and animals. e.g bacteria, fungi, woodlice
• A food chain shows which organism is eaten by the next. e.g. grass - rabbit - fox.
• This is an example of a food chain.

  
• A trophic level is a feeding stage in a food chain.
• A food web is two or more interconnected food chains.
• A pyramid of numbers represents the number of organisms at each trophic level in a food chain.
• This is an example of a pyramid of numbers.

  
• The niche of an organism is the role it plays in the community.
• Nutrient recycling is the way in which carbon and nitrogen are exchanged between the living and non-living components of an ecosystem.
• This is a diagram of the carbon cycle.

  
• This is a diagram of the nitrogen cycle.

  
• Pollution is any harmful addition to the environment.
• Conservation is the management of our existing natural resources.
• Competition occurs when organisms actively struggle for a resource that is in short supply.
• Intra-specific competition takes place between the same species.
• Inter-specific competition takes place between different species.
• Contest competition occurs when there is an active physical contest between two individual organisms and only one gets the resource.
• In scramble competition, all of the competing individuals get some of the resources.
• An adaptation helps an organism to survive in its habitat.
• This is an example of a predator-prey relationship.