Science Chapter 4

• Ecology


  The study of the relationship between living things and the environment.
• Ecosystem


  A group of living organisms that live and interact with each other in an environment.
• Terrestrial ecosystem


  An ecosystem that is based mostly or totally on land.
• Aquatic ecosystem


  An ecosystem that is based mostly or totally in water.
• Biotic factors


  Living components of an ecosystem. E.g Animals
• Abiotic Factors


  Non-living components of an ecosystem. E.g Water
• Organisms

  An individual living thing.
• Population

  A group of individuals that belong in the same species and live in the same area.
• 
  

  A community is the collection of all the populations of all species in an ecosystem.
• Cellular Respiration

  The process in which cells derive energy from glucose
• Phototsythesis

  the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar.
• Trophic Levels


  Trophic levels are the position of an organism along a food chain.
• A food web shows a series of interconnecting food chains
• Food webs are more stable than food chains as each organism has several different prey to feed on. 
• Carbon moves through animals, plants, air, ground and fossil fuels continuously
• Living things are made of mostly carbon.
• Animals take in carbon from eating plants or other animals. 
• Plants and animals will also release carbon as carbon dioxide due to cellular respiration.
• Deforestation: creates an excess of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
• Burning of fossil fuels: returns more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere 
• Evaporation:  liquid to a gas.
• Condensation:  gas to a liquid.
• Precipitation:  Water droplets condense and get larger in clouds 
• Transpiration:  Water leaving the pores in leaves of plants.
• Nitrogen is essential to living organisms for building proteins and DNA.  
• Scavenger: is an animal that feeds on dead plants and/or animals.
• Decomposer: is an organism that breaks down and feed on non-living matter and return valuable nutrients back to the environment.
• Consumer: an organism that cannot produce their own food, but must consume or eat other organisms for food. 
• Primary consumers are herbivores that eat only plants.
• All energy comes from the sun in the form of solar energy.
• A food chain illustrates the sequence of organisms, each feeding on the next, showing how energy is transferred from one organism to another.
• Pesticides are chemicals designed and used to kill pests
• Bioamplification is the increase in concentration of a pesticide as you go up a food chain. 
• Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumlation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals in an organism.
• A monoculture is where only one species of plants grows in an agricultural farm.
• Monocultures reduce biodiversity and alter ecological cycles
• Predation: one individual feeds on another.
• Mutualism: two individuals benefitting from each other
• Parasitism: one individual lives on or in and feeds on a host. The host is weakened but is not killed.