Bio

• producer - green plant that makes food by photosynthesis
• predator - catches and kills its food
• Prey - is caught and killed
• Niche - role an organism plays in its community
• Population - Number of organisms of one species
• Biodiversity - measure of variation, the number of different species in an ecosystem
• Carnivore - eats only animals
• Herbivore - eats only plants
• Omnivore - eats both plants and animals
• Intraspecific competition - competition between members of the same species for resources, space or mates
• Interspecific competition - competition between individuals of different species for the same resources.
• Biotic - describes living factors that affect organisms survival. E.g. predation, disease, grazing, competition
• Abiotic - describes non-living factors that affect organisms survival. E.g. light level, moisture in soil, salt in water, temperature, pH
• Insecticide - a chemical that kills insects. E.g. DDT
• Bioaccumulation - Pesticide builds up in food chain - top predators have the most in their body tissue
• Biological control - alternative to chemicals where living organisms are introduced to control pests
• Indicator species - a species that by its presence or absence indicates what is happening in an ecosystem
• Chlorophyll - green pigment in chloroplast that absorbs light energy in photosynthesis
• light reaction - first stage of photosynthesis that takes place in the chloroplasts and produces Hydrogen and ATP for the second stage (oxygen is a waste product of this stage)
• Carbon fixation - second stage of photosynthesis that uses Carbon dioxide, Hydrogen and Energy (ATP) to produce sugars.
• Limiting factors of photosynthesis - light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration, temperature
• Nitrate - type of chemical found in fertilisers that plants use to make amino acids (and therefore protein)
• Mutation - random change in the DNA
• Mutagenic agent - speeds up rate of mutations formed (still random though). E.g. ionising radiation, mustard gas
• Natural selection - competition for scarce resources and genetic variation in a species results in only some surviving and passing their genes so the species evolve
• Species - group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring
• Isolation barriers - prevent groups of organisms breeding together: geographic, ecological, reproductive