ECOLOGY

• biosphere


  part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere. made up of ecosystems
• levels of biological organization

  1. Biosphere

  2. Ecosystems

  3. Communities

  4. Populations

  5. Organisms

  6. Organ Systems

  7. Organs and

  8. Tissues

  9. Cells

  10. atom
• ecosystems


  communities of living species and their physical environments
• community


  All the different populations that live together in an area
• population


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


  An individual living thing
• organ system


  group of organs that work together to perform a specific function
• organs


  Groups of tissues that work together to perform a specific function or related functions
• tissue


  A group of similar cells that perform the same function.
• cellular


  smallest unit of biological organization that is considered alive
• atom


  Basic unit of matter
• Food chain


  A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy.
• parts of the food chain

  producers, consumers, decomposers
• producers in the food chain


  make their own food and are at the bottom of the food chain. are mostly plants
• consumers in the food chain


  hunt, gather, and store food because they cannot make their own
• decomposers


  Organisms that break down the dead remains of other organisms
• types of food chains

  aquatic and terrestrial
• food web


  a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.
• ecological succession


  gradual change in living communities that follows a disturbance
• types of ecological succesion

  primary succession

  secondary succession
• primary succession


  succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists
• pioneer species


  First species to populate an area during primary succession
• secondary succession


  Succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil
• climax community


  A stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species over time