Ecology

• Ecology: the study of the interrelationships between plants, animals and their environment.
• Biosphere: part of the planet containing living organisms.
• Ecosystem: organisms interacting with their environmen. E.g. woodland, grassland, lakes
• Habitat: a place where an organism lives e.g. bush within the grassland
• Population: all members of the same species living in an area
• Community: all the different populations in an area
• Biotic factors: living factors that effect organisms
• Abiotic factors: non-living factors that affect the environment and living organisms
• Producers: plants (capable of making their own food- photosynthesis)
• Consumers: animals (they must eat other animals or plants to survive)
• Niche: functional role of an organism
• Competition: is the struggle between organisms for resources that are in short supply, such as food or light
• Climatic factors: the weather conditions that affect organisms in an ecosystem
• Aquatic factors: those that affect organism that live in water
• Edaphic organisms: soil factors that affect organisms
• Food web: consists of two or more intersecting food chains
• Trophic level: a feeding level in a food chain
• Pyramid of numbers: used to show the numbers of individuals at each trophic level of a food chain
• Nutrient recycling: the way nutrients are exchanged between the biotic and abiotic parts of the ecosystem
• Symbiosis: relationship between two organisms of different species in which at least one of them benefits
• Parasite: an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species causing harm
• Saprophyte: an organism that feeds on dead organic matter