Cycles of Learning: Glossary

 

Adaptation - a behavior or physical feature that helps an organism survive in its environment

Biomass - total mass of living matter in a given area

Carrying Capacity - the number of organisms an ecosystem can support, based on availability of food, water, and shelter

Commensalism - an interaction between organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed

Competition - an interaction between organisms in which both are negatively affected; often occurs between organisms that share the same source of food or shelter

Consumer - any organism that eats other organisms for energy

Cycle - a continuous chain of events that happens repeatedly in the same order

Decomposer - an organism that breaks down the organisms' excretions and the remains of dead organisms (shed stuff and dead stuff)

Ecology - the study of organisms and their interactions with each other and their surroundings

Ecosystem - living and non-living things working together to form a community

Food Chain - a chain of organisms that consume one another

Function - what something does; its job (example: the function of a chair is to provide a place to sit; functions in ecosystems, although arbitrary, will commonly involve providing food, water, or shelter for organisms)

Habitat - the place where an animal finds its food, water, and shelter

Inorganic Material - material not directly derived from an organism

Living (Biotic) - any thing that is alive or is part of something that was once alive

Non-Living (Abiotic) - any thing that was never alive

Organic Material - material directly derived from an organism (shed stuff and dead stuff)

Organism - any living thing

Photosynthesis - the process during which green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to produce sugar (plant food), with oxygen as a byproduct

Population - a group of organisms living in a defined area

Producer - an organism that makes its own food

Relationship - a connection or association between organisms (interaction)

Symbiosis - an interaction between organisms

Structure - a physical part of an ecosystem that performs particular functions (for instance, may provide food, water, or shelter for organisms)

Watershed - the area draining into a river, river system, or other body of water