Biology:

• A niche is the role or way of life played by an organism in its environment.
• Succession is the changes in a species composition in a community over a period of time.
• Biotic 


  The living factors in an environment.
• A habitat is the place or environment in which a particular organism normally lives.
• Intraspecific competition is competition between members of the same species for resources, such as food, mates, or territory.
• Abiotic

  Environmental factors caused by physical conditions such as climate and soil
• Adaptations are inherited characteristics which enable an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment.
• Autotrophic

  Organisms which can make their own food from inorganic substances.
• Biological community is a group of plants and animals living in an area with an easily recognized boundary.
• Behavioural Adaptations are ways an organism acts that enables it to survive. Defence behaviour e.g. hiding, spitting, stinging etc.
• Nocturnal

  Active at night
• Diurnal

  Active during day
• Carnivore

  An organism that feeds on animal matter.
• Commensalism

  A feeding relationship between two different species where one species benefits and the other is unharmed.
• Density

  The number of individuals that are present in a unit area.
• Distribution is the way in which individuals are spread throughout an area.
• Ectoparasite

  A parasite that lives on the outside of its host's body.
• Emigration is the movement of individuals out of an area.
• Exploitation is the relationship of two members of two species, where one benefits at the expense of the other.
• Primary consumers

  Herbivore that eats plants
• Secondary Consumer

  Carnivore (Or omnivore) that eats herbivores.
• Physiological Adaptations

  An organism's metabolism (e.g. tolerance to high temperatures, secretions of enzymes for digestion, making venom)
• Stratification

  Vertical layering of plants in a forest community. It consists of five layers - emergent, canopy, subcanopy, shrub & ground.
• Primary Succession

  Pioneer species colonise and modify a sterile environment (i.e. no plants at all)
• Decomposers

  Saprophytes that return chemical elements to an ecosystem in a form that can be used by plant, which in turn feeds animals.
• Predator

  The animal that attacks and feeds off another animal.
• Nitrate ions are used by plants to make plant proteins.
• Ecology

  The study of living and non living things in an environment.
• Climax Community

  The final community that results when no more succession occurs.
• Binomial Nomenclature

  A system of giving names to an organism made up of the genus then species.
• Endoparasite

  A parasite that lives inside its host's body.
• Limiting Factors

  The environmental constraints that limit the growth of an organism or population.
• Gause's Principle

  A proposal between two species who have identical ways of life cannot live together for as they compete for the same resources.
• Home Range

  The area over which an organism regularly travels in order to find food and water.
• Functional Adaptations

  The functional features that an organism possesses which enables it to survive.
• Food Web

  A series of linked food chains within a community.
• Heterotrophic

  Organisms that obtain their nutrients by feeding on other living things.
• Environment

  All the different factors, both biotic and abiotic that affect an organism.
• Nitrifying Bacteria

  Bacteria found in soil which can convert nitrogen in the air into a soluble form as nitrates which plants need to produce proteins.
• Canopy Layer

  Top layer in the bush.