19.1 - Populations + ecosystems

• Define a community

  Populations of different species
• What makes up an ecosystem ?

  A community and the non-living components of of its environment
• Define a population

  Group of individuals of one species that occupy the same habitat at the same time and can potentially interbreed
• What’s the carrying capacity ?

  Maximum size of a population of a species that an ecosystem can support
• 3 factors that can cause a population size to vary ?

  Abiotic factors, intra and interspecific competition, predation
• Define a habitat

  Place where an organism lives
• Name for the smaller units within a habitat ?

  Microhabitats
• Describe an ecological niche

  The place a species occupies and what it does there, includes the biotic and abiotic factors that the organism is adapted to survive
• True or False: Ecosystems are dynamic systems

  True
• Define ecology

  Study of the inter-relationships between organisms and their environment